The affidavit further reads that UAMS gave Fatemi authorized access to these medical records for patient purposes. The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule focus on the "unauthorized access" of patient records.

Fatemi also assured UAMS under oath that she did not share the documents with anyone except her attorneys with whom she has a Business Associate Agreement that specifically protects this information.  

Lawyers representing UAMS did not respond for comment after being contacted.

A jury trial for this case is set for February 2013.

Other gender discrimination suits have been brought against UAMS in recent years.

In 2010, Donna Floyd-Gimon, a liver transplant coordinator employee filed a lawsuit against UAMS citing gender discrimination among other allegations. University officials, however, cited mediocre and sloppy work as reason for termination.

Betty Marie Drye, also a UAMS employee, filed a similar lawsuit in 2009 against UAMS, citing gender, age and disability discrimination for her termination.

In June 2001, tenure track professor of political science and member of the Middle East Studies program Gwenn Okruhlik, in addition to five other women employees, filed a lawsuit against university trustees and other officials, citing race discrimination, gender discrimination, a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and sexually discriminatory statements including Bernard Madison, then Dean of College of Arts and Sciences.

Okruhlik claimed her employment was terminated after she complained of gender discrimination. Overruling the jury's verdict in her favor, the judge dismissed the civil rights lawsuit.

Photo credit: Chris Litherland, wikicommons