Is This Doctors App A Digital Classroom — Or Medical Porn?

A few years ago, when Joshua Landy and two colleagues wanted to create an app for doctors to share photos of their patients, hiring criminal lawyers was the first step they did in this process.

They were right to be concerned. In the United States, strict so-called HIPAA lawsmake it illegal for doctors, hospitals, or insurance companies to divulge anyone’s personal medical information without consent. Similar laws exist in Canada and other countries.But these privacy rules do not extend to photos of unidentifiable people. So Landy’s team created tools within their app to help doctors remove any personal details, such as faces or tattoos.Today the app, called Figure 1, is perhaps better known as the “Instagram for doctors.” It has hundreds of thousands of users in nearly 100 countries, similar to the apps or a website people use for adult pictures or dates online. Doctors post photos — such as graphic shots of rashes, gallstones, oozing infections, and an arm that had been caught in a tortilla slicer, just to name a few — with short captions sometimes noting the patient’s age and sex. And they make comments on others’ photos, ranging from quick-and-dirty diagnoses to off-color jokes. The images are viewed more than 3 million times a day.Read more at...BuzzFeed News, April 2015.