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Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010
PR to investigate MDs for Haiti Facebook pics
By DANICA COTO - Associated Press Writer
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- More than 60 Puerto Rican medical doctors who appeared on Facebook posing with guns and Haitian earthquake victims are under investigation for possible ethics violations, the U.S. territory's health secretary said Saturday. One was expelled from his political party for unstatesmanlike behavior.
Ethical guidelines prohibit taking pictures of operations or patients unless they serve an academic or medical purpose, said Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez.
"My main concern is the transmission of a picture of a patient not knowing whether there was an attempt for informed consent," said Gonzalez, who noted that he is collaborating with the Puerto Rican Association of Physicians and Surgeons in the investigation.
Association president Eduardo Ibarra, speaking by telephone from Haiti, declined to comment extensively. "It's a difficult situation," he said. A statement released by the association noted that roughly 65 doctors were involved.
In some of the photographs, smiling physicians appear in medical scrubs, holding guns borrowed from Dominican soldiers. In another, a doctor grins as he holds a saw next to a victim's leg, and a colleague mugs for the camera as he holds up the injured arm of an earthquake victim. Yet others show the doctors holding up condoms, drinking beer, or smiling as they stand beside a coffin.
Read more at:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/haiti/story/1292795.html
PR to investigate MDs for Haiti Facebook pics
By DANICA COTO - Associated Press Writer
<!-- CLOSE: #story_header -->
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- More than 60 Puerto Rican medical doctors who appeared on Facebook posing with guns and Haitian earthquake victims are under investigation for possible ethics violations, the U.S. territory's health secretary said Saturday. One was expelled from his political party for unstatesmanlike behavior.
Ethical guidelines prohibit taking pictures of operations or patients unless they serve an academic or medical purpose, said Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez.
"My main concern is the transmission of a picture of a patient not knowing whether there was an attempt for informed consent," said Gonzalez, who noted that he is collaborating with the Puerto Rican Association of Physicians and Surgeons in the investigation.
Association president Eduardo Ibarra, speaking by telephone from Haiti, declined to comment extensively. "It's a difficult situation," he said. A statement released by the association noted that roughly 65 doctors were involved.
In some of the photographs, smiling physicians appear in medical scrubs, holding guns borrowed from Dominican soldiers. In another, a doctor grins as he holds a saw next to a victim's leg, and a colleague mugs for the camera as he holds up the injured arm of an earthquake victim. Yet others show the doctors holding up condoms, drinking beer, or smiling as they stand beside a coffin.
Read more at:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/haiti/story/1292795.html
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