Online Grand Rounds and Video Library

Munchausen’s by Internet: Clinician Monitoring of Parent Blogs in Cases of Suspected Abuse

Speaker(s)

Sconyers/Godfrey Ethics Lecture

Commentator: Megan A. Moreno, MD, MPH, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Case Presenters: James Metz, MD, MPH, and Ana Brown, MSW, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Date

5.15.14

Dr. James Metz and social worker Ana Brown present an example of a case where a parent’s blog provided evidence of parental behavior that had lead the clinicians to believe the child had serious medical problems when the child was actually healthy. 

Dr. Megan Moreno offers an analysis of the issues raised by this example relating to the range of expectations for privacy on the internet and whether clinicians should Google parents when the clinician has some suspicion of caregiver fabrication.