P096: Hospitalselfie: a review of implications and recommendations on patients making video recordings in hospital

Introduction: Smartphones are everywhere. Recent technological advances allow for instantaneous high quality video and audio recordings with the touch of a button. In Canada, physician smartphone use is highly regulated by provincial legislature and multiple policies have been published from provincial physician colleges and the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). Patients on the other hand have no such laws to observe. We set out to look at what legislation and policies exist to provide guidance to physicians in two potential scenarios: when a patient requests to record a patient-physician interaction and if a patient surreptitiously records a patient-physician interaction without consent of the physician. Methods: A literature review searching for articles on patient video recordings and patient smartphone use was completed on both Medline and PubMed. Further review of each provincial privacy act and communication with each provincial privacy office was performed. Consultation with each provincial physician college and the CMPA was also done to identify any policies or recommendations to guide physicians. Results: Patients making video recordings do not fall under any provincial privacy law and there are no existing policies from any provincial physician college or the CMPA to provide guidance. Therefore, physicians must rely on their own institution’s policy regarding patient video recording in the health care setting. Be familiar with your institution’s policy. If your institution does not have a policy, create one with the input of appropriate stakeholders. Patients may surreptitiously video record medical interactions without physician consent. Although this may not be permitted under an individual institution’s policy, it is not illegal under the Criminal Code. Thus, it is important to behave in a professional manner at all times and assume you may be recorded at any time. Conclusion: The majority of patients’ recordings will be done without litigious intentions, but rather with the goal of understanding more about their own health and medical care. Unfortunately there are those who will undermine the physician-patient relationship. Physicians cannot allow this to cause distrust in future relationships, nor should it force physicians to practice more defensive medicine. Physicians must continue to practice the art of medicine and accept that “performance” is a part of the job.