Demographic information about a specific subset of patients can help physicians recognize conditions they do not expect to find in the larger population.
The WHO Clinical Staging System for HIV/AIDS allows physicians in resource-limited settings to make clinical decisions based on patient clinical features instead of laboratory tests.
Clinical decision making calls for use of both explicit and tacit knowledge despite evidence-based medicine's assumption that explicit information is sufficient.
As courts continue to define the balance between a First Amendment right of free speech, the public's right to know, and protection of the private, physicians must take care to protect patient privacy in any publishing endeavor.