Patients have the right to confidentiality and privacy.

Any information fulfils the definition of Protected Health information if, even without mentioning the patient’s name, someone can tell who the person is by looking at certain information. Protected Health information is any information that mentions the following about the patient, the patient’s household members, or the patient’s employers: Names, photographs, dates such as birth dates, dates of medical treatment, admission and discharge dates, and dates of death, telephone number, address, fax numbers and other contact information, social security numbers, medical records numbers, finger and voice prints and any other unique identifying number, like PAN number.

MCI Ethics Regulation 7.17 is also clearly states: “A registered medical practitioner shall not publish photographs or case reports of his / her patients without their permission, in any medical or other journal in a manner by which their identity could be made out. If the identity is not to be disclosed, the consent is not needed.”