I see no evil, speak no evil

Did you know that "Peeking is traceable and is now illegal."

As a matter of fact, there is a $25,000 fine per infraction and repeat offenders may have to pay up to $250,000 or 10 years in prison.

When I say "peeking" I'm not talking about reading the headlines of the San Francisco Chronicle over a stranger's shoulder or catching a glimpse of the new Angelina Jolie pictures from someone else's People Magazine.

In the medical world, "peeking" refers to wrongfully scoping out a patent's medical history. The policy to protect patient privacy and records from prying eyes was enacted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

We hear about this all the time: celebrity checks into hospital, press hear rumors, hospital location where celebrity checked in is discovered, celebrity health information leaked to the press, celebrity get outraged...and cycle starts all over again

No body wants their medical history broadcasted on Entertainment Tonight or on the local news, and yet sometimes patent's rights are violated.

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Now that our first midterm has ended, we move onward in our training to become physicians. We received our formal HIPAA training today to prepare us for the next few steps in our training.

Starting next week, we'll be traversing San Francisco, the bay, and cities in between to make our way to our preceptor sites, where we have each been paired with seasoned physicians in fields such as internal medicine, primary care, and emergency medicine.

During our bi-monthly preceptorship dates, we are expected to experience medicine directly, put our physical and history-taking skills to good use and observe how medicine is practiced.

"There are standardized patients, but they are no standardized preceptors" according to our doctoring facilitator.

We will each have different experiences.

I really do not know what to expect and I'm a little bit uncertain as to what is to be expected of me.

Nonetheless, I know about a patent's rights (as described by HIPAA regulations), I know where to place my stethoscope, I can take blood pressure, percuss, and listen to some one's lungs and take a basic medical history.

With six weeks of medical school behind me, I have come a ways from where I started. I do have some skills to help patients.

Most of all, I have an interest in learning and I look forward to walking into my new classroom next week.