An emergency room doctor who illegally obtained health information of multiple individuals pleaded guilty last week in federal court.

Thirty-year-old Dr. Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez Roman was convicted of one count of wrongfully obtaining individual identifiable health information relating to an individual under false pretenses. Between 2020 and 2023, he worked in the emergency departments of multiple hospitals, including a facility titled “Hospital-1” in Cedar Rapids and another named “Hospital-2” in Iowa City.

In 2022 while at Hospital-1, Dr. Hernandez Roman knowingly and without authorization accessed a patient’s medical records without their knowledge or consent. He admitted to previously accessing that same patient’s information at Hospital-2 in addition to another patient. Dr. Hernandez Roman also admitted to sending a photograph of a different patient at Hospital 1 to an individual via SnapChat. The picture showed the patient with a specific medical condition, but Dr. Hernandez Roman had no legitimate medical purpose for taking or sending it.

Sentencing for Dr. Hernandez Roman will be set after a full report is prepared. The case was investigated by the Iowa Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.