Ahmad Maher Abdel-Munim Alsughayer, a former physician at Mayo Clinic, is facing a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized computer access after allegedly inappropriately accessing patients' protected health information during his employment, the Post Bulletin reported.
A Mayo Clinic spokesperson confirmed to Becker's that Dr. Alsughayer was employed at the Rochester, Minn.-based health system and that his employment was ending when the privacy breach was discovered in August 2020. The health system also said it notified law enforcement of the incident and has "fully cooperated with them."
Dr. Alsughayer was charged in Olmsted County District Court with gross misdemeanor unauthorized computer access. The criminal complaint, which was filed in April, alleges that Dr. Alsughayer accessed protected patient information that he did not need to access as a physician and employee, according to the complaint.
The complaint references a woman who contacted Rochester, Minn.-based police in December 2020 after receiving a notification letter from Mayo Clinic that her health records had been inappropriately accessed by a hospital employee. The letter informed her that images in her records also were accessed.
"After receiving the letter, [the woman] stated she requested to view her own medical records and noticed the dates specified in the letter included nude images of herself," the complaint reads. "[The woman] was upset because this incident appeared as though the hospital employee had accessed her medical records with the sole purpose of viewing her nude images."
Dr. Alsughayer is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the charge July 8, according to the report.