Currently submitted to: JMIR Dermatology
Date Submitted: May 21, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 3, 2024 - Jul 29, 2024
(currently open for review and needs more reviewers - can you help?)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Informed Consent Practices for Publication of Patient Images in Dermatology Journals: A Cross-sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Clinical images play a crucial role in dermatology, yet standardized informed consent guidelines for publishing patient images in dermatology journals are lacking. This cross-sectional study examined informed consent practices for publication of patient images in the top 50 dermatology journals based on the 2022 Clarivate Journal Impact Factor ranking. Our assessment revealed inconsistencies in image consent practices across journals and their associated consent forms for patients. While approximately 90% of journals specified image consent requirements, there was notable variability in criteria related to image modification, safeguards for anonymity (e.g., eyebars, cropping, blurring), and the definition of identifiable features. These findings emphasize the need for more uniform consent guidelines, standardized definitions of identifiable features, and transparent communication regarding possible image dissemination avenues to protect patient privacy in medical image publication.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.