Finding Medical Photographs of Patients Online: Randomized, Cross-Sectional Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Photographs from medical case reports published in academic journals have previously been found in online image search results. This means that patient photographs circulate beyond the original journal website and can be freely accessed online. While this raises ethical and legal concerns, no systematic study has documented how often this occurs.

Objective

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to provide systematic evidence that patient photographs from case reports published in medical journals appear in Google Images search results. Research questions included the following: (1) what percentage of patient medical photographs published in case reports were found in Google Images search results? (2) what was the relationship between open access publication sta

SUBMITTER: Marshall Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11231620 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature