Doctor sued for posting breast augmentation photos

ST. LOUIS • Ten women in the St. Louis area have sued their doctor after learning that before-and-after pictures of their breast augmentation surgeries could be found online through a simple search of their names.


And a Post-Dispatch search suggests that revealing photos posted of dozens of other women by doctors around the country are similarly linked to their names.


The suits, all pending in federal court here, accuse Dr. Michele Koo, of Kirkwood, of negligence for displaying pictures linked to their names.


Neil Bruntrager, a lawyer for eight of the patients, says he knows of more
than 30 women whose pictures were similarly put on Koo's website.


Typically, the images showed no faces and were authorized by patients who expected their names to remain confidential.


Bruntrager said his clients — from 21 to 58 years old when they had surgery — were horrified when they found out and are furious now. Some learned of the
situation from people who had run across their pictures.


The photos are widely used as a marketing tool to promote doctors' work. They are not publicly labeled with names. But if patients' names aren't removed from the computerized picture file information, they can be displayed with the images during an Internet search.


Using the name of the company that ran Koo's website, the Post-Dispatch found the problem to be widespread.


That company, Long Island, N.Y.-based MedNet Technologies Inc., boasts that it manages sites for more than 2,500 healthcare workers worldwide, "from large hospital systems to individual medical, dental and veterinary practices."


Bruntrager said he has been contacted by lawyers from four states, concerned about companies other than MedNet. "I think this is a much bigger issue," he said.


As recently as early August, a simple Google search pulled
up multiple doctors' websites with patient pictures, names and the
procedures they paid for: nose jobs, liposuctions, face-lifts or breast
enlargements or reductions.


It took only minutes to find a patient photo linked to a full name on a website designed by Einstein Medical, a MedNet competitor in San Diego, for Dr. Dennis Hurwitz.


An employee of that medical practice, which has offices in Pennsylvania,
Beverly Hills, Calif., and Sao Paulo, Brazil, said it already is involved in a lawsuit over a similar issue.


Ted Ricasa, Einstein's president, said Friday that in 16 or 17 years and thousands of clients, Hurwitz was the only client who had such a problem. Einstein immediately took down the picture, even before talking to Hurwitz, he said.


He said medical clients are warned not to use names and that
he was 'shocked" it was still happening. He added, "To me, it seems
like a common sense kind of thing."


Bruntrager said none of his clients would agree to an interview because they are "desperately afraid they will somehow be identified."


In court filings, Koo's lawyers blame MedNet, saying it failed to maintain Koo's site in a "competent and professional manner."


"Whatever Dr. Koo did do or didn't do," said one of her lawyers, Jonathan Ries,
she had "no intention" of linking pictures and names.


MedNet's response blames Koo, saying the company did not post, control or
influence the content. It also claims legal immunity under the
Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from suits over
postings by third parties.


MedNet's chief executive officer, John Pellman, said Thursday that all doctors identified by the Post-Dispatch for this story were responsible for their own content.


In fact, Pellman said, "we've gone out of our way to advise them ... strenuously, to go check."


Pellman said mistakes like these were not an issue a few years ago. But
Internet search engine technology has improved to the point that almost
everything online is becoming searchable, he said.


THE SHOCKING NEWS
In recent days, the website for Dr. O.M. Suliman, of St. Petersburg, Fla.,
revealed names of patients with a simple roll of the cursor over images
of their breast augmentations.


One Florida woman replied with an expletive when informed that a search of her name in Google Images would bring up before-and-after pictures.


"I didn't realize my picture was up, even," she said.


Later, through tears, she said she hoped her pictures would be quickly removed "because I'm pretty horrified about it. And I'm horrified for other
women, too."


Another Suliman patient said, "I'm floored and I don't even know what to say," adding, "I feel violated in a way."


Suliman called a reporter back four days after his office learned of the
problem, saying he has shut down the website until it can be fixed.


"I'm very, very upset about this," he said. "This is just not right."


He speculated that an employee who left the office in December had failed
to remove patients' names before uploading the pictures.


"This really was ... a complete surprise," he said.


An Ohio woman said she had seen her pictures on the website of Dr. Daniel
Medalie of Cleveland and wasn't bothered. She had agreed to their use,
and the picture did not show her face.


"I thought it was pretty anonymous," she said.


When informed that her full name was linked to the photos, she said she was
"not very happy." She added, "It's not something I agreed to at any
point."


In an email, Medalie said, "I would never and have never
knowingly posted a photograph with the patient name in the file name of
the picture." He said there are no names on any current pictures files
and that no one in the pictures has ever complained.


A Google Image search of MedNet and surgical terms still called up at least one before-and-after picture of a Medalie patient on Thursday.


Medalie refused to answer further questions, citing the federal law protecting patient privacy.


PRIVACY LOST
Plastic surgeons like for prospective customers to see examples of their work, and they commonly post pictures online.


Some women reached by the Post-Dispatch said they signed waivers for use of revealing pictures, while others denied it or couldn't remember. None
found the attachment of names acceptable.


In court filings, Koo's lawyers say her patients signed waivers. A copy of one obtained by the Post-Dispatch says photos, videos or case histories may be used by Koo, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery or others "under their license and authority" in journals, books, presentations or
websites "for the purpose of informing the medical profession or the
general public."


But the next line says, "Neither I, nor any member of my family, will be identified by name in any publication."


The arrangement appears to comply with HIPAA, the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, so long as the photos do not
reveal identities.


Efthimios Parasidis, an assistant professor at
St. Louis University's Center for Health Law Studies, said the linking
of names is a clear violation.


"Any violation of a patient's
confidential medical records is egregious," Parasidis said. "No one
would want their private medical information broadcast to the public."


By law, physicians must notify patients within 60 days of a "breach" of
protected information. But no patients contacted by the Post-Dispatch
had been told by their doctors.


No one has suggested that doctors have deliberately betrayed the names. Still, it is not necessarily difficult to protect names.


Kim Wigod, a nurse in the office of Boise, Idaho, cosmetic surgeon Mark
Wigod, wrote in an email that pictures are saved by patient name in that
office's software, but the file is renamed on the website.


"If a photo is used in the monthly blog, we check the 'do not reveal URL' so it cannot be copied or traced," she wrote.


Wigod is a MedNet client but his site does not have patient names linked to photos.


Pictures on Koo's site no longer contain names, although at least one patient's
lawyer claimed in court filings that it took months to get hers removed.


Asked how widespread the problem might be, Ries, the lawyer for Koo, replied, "I don't think any of us really know the answer to that question."


Doctors risk stiff legal bills and hefty jury verdicts for releasing patient information.


In 2009, a federal jury in St. Louis ordered a plastic surgery practice to
pay $100,000 for invading the privacy of a patient whose naked torso
was shown in a photo that accompanied a Riverfront Times article in
2006, even though she was not identified by name.


Before trial, the patient had been offered $300,000 to settle. The case was later reversed by the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals, and a retrial is pending.


Bruntrager said his clients are particularly eager to get every picture off the
web, but there is no way to know how each may have been shared.


"There's always the possibility it will reappear," he said. "We will never have absolute certainty that we will have it all."


Source HERE xx

omg

I remember my surgeon asking me to sign a disclaimer because he wanted to use my pictures in possible case studies or reports and I agreed to this, but the thought of those pictures of my boobs being linked to my true identity makes me feel sick!

I feel really sorry for all of those women and hope they all feel they get what they feel is right to make each of them feel a little better at the retrial, although I doubt any monetary compensation could ever do that, they will always have to live with the constant fear of their pictures reappearing. xx

I agree, once something is out there on the internet, it is really hard to remove it, if not impossible. Plus people can't forget what they have already seen. I would be horrified to find my before pictures linked to my name more than my after, but it would be awful foor any naked pictures of my body to appear on the internet. I hope they get compensation.

misf1 wrote:I would be horrified to find my before pictures linked to my name more than my after

Oh my goodness!!! I never even thought of that!! I'd be mortified at after pics being shown, but before....... Nooooooo. Even the thought of that is making my blood run cold. xx

I agree, I would die if, for example, my future employer googles my name to find the pictures of my boobies!!