Ethical publishing

Case reports have an important role to play in developing prehospital and paramedicine care and literature, and improving patient care (Maarouf et al, 2017). However, a number of case reports have been published which are ethically questionable, including explicit patient images/video (Durão et al, 2017), details of paediatric patients (McLean et al, 2017), and information which may put the patient's life at risk (Sharif and Alizargar, 2013).

It is important to remember that the patient's story does not belong to us as caregivers, but rather to the individual. All research, including case reports, should comply with established ethical codes and principles such as the Declaration of Helsinki (Cook et al, 2013), where patient rights and autonomy must be respected. Currently, case reports are mostly published without written informed patient consent or review by an ethical review committee (ERC) and this status quo may be considered an ‘ethical blindspot’. Authors and journals have a duty not to publish any content which is ethically questionable even if it is technically possible to do so.