View Single Post
  #3  
Old Mon Oct 24, 2011, 07:12 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
Owner
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 2,553
I'm surprised to hear that a doctor, or somebody working for the doctor, would put copies of online posts in a patient's medical record without their knowledge. Did you ever mention Marrowforums to your doctor or did they find you online entirely on their own? Do you plan to ask them about it?

I wonder if other doctors have done this too. I agree with Cheri that doctors would benefit from hearing more of what patients have to say, at least in a general way. But tracking you online, even when your posts are technically "public", seems like a questionable practice, especially at a site like this that purposely tries to promote privacy by letting you post with as little identifying information as you want. At a minimum it makes it harder to maintain the trust you need with your doctor.

Perhaps it's reasonable to expect that a doctor, doctor's office, or institution might monitor what's said about them online, as a way to gather unsolicited feedback or even watch for libel, but that's different than tying online information to specific patients. You are welcome to use another alias here to protect your privacy, but do you have a concern that they might recognize you from this thread too? It would be shame if you have to keep all of your future posts generic for privacy's sake, since omitting important details might produce less useful advice from other forum members, but that's a tradeoff everyone has to judge when they go online for medical advice and support.

Your medical records belong to you, at least if you're in the U.S., so perhaps this is one more reason for patients to request copies of their own files.
Reply With Quote