Privacy 05/05/2009

This blog is representative of The House of Hope and Fear Publishing Procedures group, but more specifically one of the four members named Isaac.

I took the challenge of discussing some of the issues that Audrey Young, author of HoHaF, may have gone through legally while dealing with publishing a patients name and why she must protect herself from potential lawsuits.

Hopefully I can touch on everything and not leave anything significant out of the puzzle, though my offering will be slight and brief. My goal is to raise a new understanding a sympathy out of this in regards to the difficulty for medical writers.

The short topic is privacy and this issue pertains to the legal terms of publicly disclosing private facts.

I will attempt to explain the details regarding this subject from the viewpoint of a journalism student.

The privacy tort tells us that in order for a plaintiff to have a valid case the questionable remarks made must be true; embarrassing information that causes mental anguish; not be of legitimate concern to the public; and highly offensive and objectionable. Keep in mind that this is a very short summary and involves much more.

This vulnerability may also contain details that further the idea of libel or defamation and/or can fall under issues of a doctor having the right to not testify in court.

As mentioned, this is very brief but after reading Audrey’s book the nuances can seem quite familiar once the process is complete.

In the case of a journalist it may be different, but these thoughts at least give an idea of what a doctor might have to deal with when protecting themselves from a potential lawsuit.

Check out Audrey’s new book coming in August!

Isaac