Patient Photographs and Google Images: An AI Ethics Case Study

Authors

Keywords:

Google Images, medical photography, privacy, PubMed, PIPEDA, informed consent, patient health

Abstract

Over 35% of case reports published in medical journals contain patient photographs. With widespread online
academic publishing, there is growing concern about patient photographs that were originally published in
medical journals appearing in online image search results. Research has shown that from a random sample of
case reports indexed in PubMed, at least one image was found on Google Images for 76.3% of the publications.
Inspired by recent examples, this case study explores the ethical implications of patient photographs circulating
outside of the original journal website, including attention to patient privacy and informed consent.

References

Carey, John C. "The Importance of Case Reports in Advancing Scientific Knowledge of Rare Diseases." Rare Diseases Epidemiology, edited by Manuel Posada de la Paz, Springer, 2010, pp. 77-86. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9485-8_5

Kratz, Martin. "Guidance on Application of PIPEDA to Google Search." Slaw, 5 Aug. 2021, http://www.slaw.ca/2021/08/05/guidance-on-application-of-pipeda-to-google-search/

Marshall, Zack et al. “Open Availability of Patient Medical Photographs in Google Images Search Results: Cross-Sectional Study of Transgender Research.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 20, no. 2, 2018, pp. e70. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8787.

Marshall, Zack et al. “Finding Medical Photographs of Patients Online: Randomized, Cross-Sectional Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 26, no. 2, 2024, pp. e55352. https://doi.org/10.2196/55352.

Ortega-Loubon, Christian et al. "The Importance of Writing and Publishing Case Reports During Medical Training." Cureus, vol. 9, no. 12, 2017, pp. e1964. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1964.

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Published

2024-10-20

How to Cite

Bhattacharjee, Maushumi, Ebrahim Bagheri, Lauren Asaad, and Zack Marshall. 2024. “Patient Photographs and Google Images: An AI Ethics Case Study”. The International Review of Information Ethics 34 (1). Edmonton, Canada. https://informationethics.ca/index.php/irie/article/view/529.

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 1 (2024): Case Studies in AI Ethics

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Maushumi Bhattacharjee, Ebrahim Bagheri, Lauren Asaad, Zach Marshall

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