i was an employee of the pediatrician / family doctor's office, and an employee of the university hospital system where the heart surgery / genetics shadowing was done; as such, i was involved in patient care to an extent, and i did considerable hipaa compliance training beforehand
in any case, programs that permit shadowing require hipaa compliance training of their participants:
https://pre-med.usg.iupui.edu/Shadow...8/Default.aspx Primary Care Physician Shadowing Shadowing Program ?(Yale Medical Professions Outreach)?
and when a patient-physician interaction (physical exam, etc.) is being observed by a shadow, physicians ask if the patient is all right with the observation first, which constitutes a willing disclosure
perhaps things are different where you live, but shadowing is still alive and well here