Arrest Warrant Issued For Former Mayo Clinic Doctor

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Mayo Clinic employee accused of being responsible for a large patient data breach several years ago.

The warrant for 30-year-old Ahmed Alsughayer was issued after he failed to appear for a plea hearing in Olmsted County Court earlier this month. He is charged with a gross misdemeanor count of unauthorized computer access.

Alsughayer, who now lives in Michigan, was accused of accessing protected health information on patients while he was employed as a doctor by Mayo Clinic.  According to the criminal complaint, the private information included nude photos that were taken for medical reasons and were part of patient record files. The court document also indicated Mayo Clinic had already taken disciplinary action against Alsughayer.

The unauthorized access of the patient data led to multiple lawsuits against Alughayer and Mayo Clinic. Court records associated with the lawsuits indicated he had improperly accessed the medical records of more than 1600 patients.

The criminal case was filed in April 2021 and was put on hold due to the pandemic in August of that year. The proceedings against Alsughayer were resumed in February of this year and he was scheduled to enter a plea to the charge on September 12th. The warrant for his arrest was issued the next day.