Published 1 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1878
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1878

Letters

Consent for publication

Simplifying consent for publication of case reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Under the data protection act and guidance from the information commissioner, the BMJ is obliged to ensure all authors obtain consent for publication of case reports.¹ As a foundation year 2 trainee keen to publish such interesting cases, I appreciate this need to protect patients, but I have also been frustrated by the current consent process.

The Information Commissioner has advised doctors to think ahead when writing up cases,¹ but such forward planning is hindered by the current publication process. I recently decided to write up a case report, and initially it was not clear which journal would be most interested in publishing the case as the story was still unfolding. What was clear, even on initial presentation, was that the case would be interesting enough to warrant publication.

We therefore obtained consent for publication in advance while the patient was in hospital under our general surgical care, and subsequently . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Royal Free Hospital, London NW3 2QG

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