Should medical students follow up on skin biopsy results? When education conflicts with patient privacy

With the increased availability of EHR across clinical medicine, medical trainees are increasingly using this technology as a learning tool. Although medical students are standardly given access to patient records to carry out clinical duties, one study found that 96% of students use EHRs to follow-up on outcomes after patients have left the student's direct care.1 Of these students, 93% found the practice to be educationally beneficial.1 However, what implications does this have for a patient's right to privacy, which reflects the ethical principle of respect for patient autonomy? Autonomy represents self-governance or self-rule whereby a person is free from the control or undue influence of others.