ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1677160
Awareness of Radiology Staff in Saudi Arabia Regarding Patient Privacy, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Sharing Medical Imaging on Online Platforms
Provisionally accepted
- Radiological Sciences, King Saud University College of Applied Medical Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The digitization of radiology through online platforms has introduced significant challenges in maintaining patient privacy and complying with ethical and legal standards, particularly in Saudi Arabia's rapidly evolving healthcare system. Aim: To assess the awareness levels of radiology professionals in Saudi Arabia regarding patient privacy, ethical responsibilities, and legal implications of sharing medical imaging on digital platforms. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 293 radiology staff, including Radiologists and Radiologic Technologists, using a structured online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and ANOVA. Results: Participants demonstrated moderate awareness across all domains (mean scores ~3.1– 3.2 on a 5-point scale). Radiologists reported significantly higher awareness than Technologists (p < 0.0001). Awareness also increased with years of experience and varied by region, with the Central region showing the highest scores. Conclusion: Despite moderate overall awareness, significant disparities highlight the need for targeted training and policy reinforcement to ensure consistent compliance with privacy, ethical, and legal standards in digital radiology.
Keywords: patient privacy, medical imaging, Ethical implications, legal compliance, Radiology awareness, Saudi Arabia
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Arif. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wejdan M Arif, warif@ksu.edu.sa
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.