Before I address the reason for this blog entry, look at the image below and read the hyperlinked article associated with it.
Now that you understand the enormity, the pervasiveness of the use of social media, please allow me to share a story. I was treating tooth #1.7 (#1 for those living in default central – the U S of A) for a patient (Dx – chronic apical periodontitis…standard RCT – two visit procedure with interim calcium hydroxide usage). Unfortunately the crown had a substantial radiographically determined open margin and my preference was to remove the crown intact and if the referring dentist could refit it, no worries.
The patient contacted me and indicated that her DDS wished to see the radiograph as his image did not show an open margin. Normally, I would send a final report as a .pdf, but in this case, I sent a .jpg and a note to the DDS with the patients name in it. I unintentionally violated PIPEDA.
No medical information was disclosed, no address, no email address. Given the Murdoch scandal, who knows how all this can be twisted. A hacker would know that so and so is treated by dentist x and she has a necrotic 1.7. I can’t type a word in a gmail message without getting SPAM on a related topic. In the immortal words of a dental representative who shall remain nameless on being told, the company is failing to meet the standard of their commitment to support the product,”It is what it is”.
This is the world in which we live. We are supposedly photographed 28 times a day. From lightbulb choice to paying taxes on cigarettes with warning labels that say,YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, mandated by a government that collects those taxes and yet can’t manage the health care system that deals with the associated smoking problems, but I digress…..or go tangential (I don’t smoke)….where does it end and at what cost.
I’ve gotten to know the developer of www.myddsnetwork.com, which you must visit, over the course of the past month. I wish to invite him to the blog to post his thoughts on the future of inter-office communications as de facto mandated by PIPEDA and as will invariably be mandated by licensing bodies as soon as the edict can be constructed and brought down.
Jeff – floor is yours, this is why we have blogs……
