Texting Among Academic Psychiatrists: What Does HIPAA Allow?
The texting of protected health information (PHI) has raised concerns about breach of privacy as it relates to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Within psychiatry, limited guidelines exist on HIPAA-permissible texting. Given the legal implications of a breach, we sought to better understand texting patterns among psychiatrists by surveying members of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 53 of whom responded. Only 63% of respondents felt confident in their knowledge of HIPAA. While 64% reported that texting PHI is prohibited, most (53%) still used texting to communicate PHI. Currently, HIPAA is technology neutral and texting PHI is not explicitly prohibited, provided safeguards are taken and physicians securely communicate PHI.
Text Messaging and Protected Health Information: What Is Permitted?
The first short message service (SMS) “text message” was sent in 1992 from a computer to a mobile phone. It read: “Merry Christmas.” Since then, mobile-to-mobile SMS has become one of the most popular means of electronic communication worldwide, with more than 20 billion messages transmitted daily. In a 2013 survey of 2076 US adults, 91% reported owning a cellular phone, and 81% reported using their device for texting—making SMS the most commonly used mobile application.1 Not surprisingly, several small studies including 45 resident and 28 faculty general surgeons and 97 pediatrics hospitalists found that more than half (60%80%) of physicians use text messaging for clinical communications.2,3 However, there is little guidance regarding appropriate use of this technology in the health care setting. In addition, some physicians may have the misconception that text messaging of protected health information is prohibited by law.
Study of External Parasites Infesting Carcharhinus Melanopterus Fish From The Red Sea In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Parasitic diseases are harmful and limiting factors in breeding and rearing ornamental fish industry, such as the Monogenea ( Dactylogyrus sp and Erpocotyletiburonis ) and copepod ( Pandarus sinuatus  and Anchistrotostangi ). The copepod and the monogenean are gill parasites found on the shark; CarcharhinusMelanopterus . The primary purpose of this study was to determine the parasitic infections of sharks in red sea in Jeddah. For this purpose, 19 female C. Melanopterus and 14 male C. Melanopterus were first examined for ectoparasites using wet mount under a light microscope. All male sharks had Monogenea and/or copepod in their gill and only 3 females haven’t infections. Then, we aimed to find a combination of copepod and monogenea infection in C. Melanopterus gills. 50% of male and 42% of female were infected by copepod and monogenea. Our findings revealed that the protozoan infections are very common among sharks. Although, no gross pathology was observed among infected shark, but it is likely that in case of any changes in the environment, then parasitic infections could be harmful.