Ethical Legal Feature Should Health Care Professionals Google Patients or Family Members? Feature Editor Introduction: Kristi L. Kirschner, MD For this issue, I have invited Rebecca Brashler, LCSW, an ethics consultant and director of Care Management and Family Support Services at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, to share an interesting ethics case that recently was brought to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago consultation service. Without a doubt, the use of the Internet for e-mail and social networking has raised novel issues for professional practice. By recognizing the allure as well as the potential pitfalls of such practices, many institutions and professional organizations have begun to develop guidelines and policies for their use. Ms Brashler raises a related, but slightly distinct, concern: the use of the Internet by health care professionals seeking personal information about patients and their family members. Ms Brashler lays out the parameters of the case, the issues raised, and the discussion ensued. I have invited Matthew K. Wynia, MD, MPH, FACP, the director of The Institute for Ethics, and Bette-Jane Crigger, PhD, the director of Ethics Policy, the American Medical Association, to provide the first commentary. The second commentary is by Anita Halvorsen, FACHE, MBA, MS, CCC-SLP, vice president at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital in Chicago. In addition to her current leadership role in hospital administration, Ms Halvorsen has extensive prior experience in hospital corporate compliance. Finally, Ms Brashler provides some closing comments about how she came to see the issue after consulting on the particular case. As always, please do feel free to write in and provide your thoughts and comments! Column Introduction by Rebecca Brashler, LCSW Is it ethical for health care professionals to google their patients and/or family members? This question was brought to our hospital ethics consultation service after a nurse googled a child’s mother when the parent’s behavior raised concerns about her integrity and character. The google search led the clinician to a Web site blog that discussed the woman’s history of white collar crimes and fraud. This finding was shared with others on the treatment team and raised additional concerns about what should be done with the newly discovered information and whether the staff member’s actions were acceptable. An informal poll of colleagues revealed that there was little consensus. Reactions varied from “Of course it’s okay, I google everyone” to “I think it’s highly unprofessional and unethical.” Anecdotally, opinions seemed to be split along generational lines, with younger staff members generally finding the behavior more acceptable than older staff members. There was agreement, however, that googling in nonclinical hospital areas (such as a human resources recruiter googling an applicant for employment) was largely without controversy, whereas the clinical setting posed a more complicated ethical landscape. There is little in the ethics literature to verify how prevalent this practice has become among health care professionals. Lal [1] published a study in the August 2010 American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology that asked graduate psychology students about googling practices and found that 22% of students reported googling a patient to get additional information, whereas 42% reported googling a supervisor. The different rates may be indicative of a more widely accepted sense that there is “something” improper about launching a Web search on patients, although this is not clear. A common initial response from health care professionals was that googling seems like a violation of patient privacy. But a review of the laws confirmed that the behavior does not Contributors: Rebecca Brashler LCSW Care Management and Family Support Services, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Medical Hu- manities and Bioethics, Northwestern Univer- sity Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Disclosure: nothing to disclose Matthew K. Wynia, MD, MPH, FACP The Institute for Ethics, American Medical Associ- ation, Chicago, IL Disclosure: the commentary represents the views of M.K.W. and not the AMA; nothing to disclose Bette-Jane Crigger, PhD Ethics Policy, Amer- ican Medical Association, Chicago, IL Disclosure: the commentary represents the views of B.-J.C. and not the AMA; nothing to disclose Anita Halvorsen, FACHE, MBA, MS CCC-SLP Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital at Sinai Health System, Chicago, IL Disclosure: 7A, Nexstim Feature Editor: K.L.K. Medical Humanities and Bioethics, and PM&R, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 750 N. Lakeshore Drive, Room 623, Chicago IL 60611, and Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Chicago IL Address correspondence to K.L.K; e-mail: k-kirschner@ northwestern.edu Disclosure: nothing to disclose Disclosure Key can be found on the Table of Contents and at www.pmrjournal.org PM&R © 2011 by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1934-1482/11/$36.00 Vol. 3, 372-376, April 2011 Printed in U.S.A. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2011.02.007 372