HIPAA Compliance

Hello out there in comic land! I wanted to type a quick note about this wonderful site. For those not in the know, I abide by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Protected Health Information (PHI) in order to protect the identity and privacy of my patients, teachers, fellow students, and future co-workers. Several of my friends are portrayed as characters in this comic. Any friend portrayed in this comic has provided his/her permission for me to use their name and likeness. This real life portrayal of actual people will not exist in any stories surrounding my clinical and hospital sites. If you are not my friend, and I didn’t explicitly draw a character about you and you are reading this comic and think I am drawing about you, I AM NOT! All patient names and likeness are changed. Because really, I am not talented enough to draw people I don’t know. I am borrowing the next 3 promises (I am lazy and unoriginal) from a fellow Health Care Professional. Thanks, buddy!

In order to respect the privacy of any patients I encounter in my clinical rotations, I promise:

1. To never reference anything about where I work.
2. To never reference anything identifiable about the people with whom I work.
3. To never reveal any patient identifiers covered under the Protected Health Information (PHI) and HIPAA privacy laws.

Update 2020:  I no longer provide direct patient care and as a result will not post on medical topics as I did in the past.  Unless they are really cool and have to be shared, albeit appropriately.