<P> In magnetic resonance imaging, there is MRI RF shielding as well as magnetic shielding to prevent external disturbance of image quality . </P> <P> Medical imaging are generally covered by laws of medical privacy . For example, in the United States the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets restrictions for health care providers on utilizing protected health information, which is any individually identifiable information relating to the past, present, or future physical or mental health of any individual . While there has not been any definitive legal decision in the matter, at least one study has indicated that medical imaging may contain biometric information that can uniquely identify a person, and so may qualify as PHI . </P> <P> The UK General Medical Council's ethical guidelines indicate that the Council does not require consent prior to secondary uses of X-ray images . </P> <P> As per Compendium: Chapter 300 by the US Copyright Office, "the Office will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author ." including "Medical imaging produced by x-rays, ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imaging, or other diagnostic equipment ." This position differs from the broad copyright protections afforded to photographs . While the Copyright Compendium is an agency statutory interpretation and not legally binding, courts are likely to give deference to it if they find it reasonable . Yet, there is no U.S. federal case law directly addressing the issue of the copyrightability of x-ray images . </P>

Which form of an atom is often used in medical imaging