Clinical encounters recorded by patients: what do surgeons think?
Ullah SM, Cil T, Devon KM

Introduction
Recently, cases of patients recording clinical encounters without the physician’s knowledge have been reported, raising ethical and legal questions. No study to date has examined surgeons’ opinions towards this practice.  

Methods
An anonymous online survey was developed and administered to residents, fellows and attending physicians in a large academic department of surgery. We also compared the responses between surgeons and trainees. 

Results
There were a total of 114 responses (response rate of 12.6%). Opinions on the utility of recording clinical encounters and whether this practice was reasonable, varied. Attendings were more likely to disagree that discussing difficult information without any memory aide was sufficient compared to trainees (22% vs 5.3%, p<0.05). Attendings were also more likely to think it was reasonable for patients to record their clinical encounters than trainees (38.8% vs 13.5%, p<0.05). They were less likely to agree that recording a clinical encounter without their knowledge would hinder their therapeutic relationship (38.8% vs 62.2%, p<0.05). Finally, they were also less likely to believe that these recordings could be taken out of clinical context (29.2% vs 52.8%, p<0.05) or used against them in a medico-legal dispute (38.8% vs 62.2%). 

Conclusion
While surgeons’ opinions on recording clinical encounters vary, there was a striking difference in attitudes between trainees and attendings. Trainees were less likely to value recording clinical encounters and more likely to believe that these recordings could be harmful.