[The physician in the dilemma between confidentiality and mandatory reporting of occupational diseases]

If a physician may reasonably suspect an occupational disease after examining his or her patient he is liable by German law to report this directly to the statutory accident insurance body or the Government institution responsible for the medical safety of working places, in accordance with section 202 of the Federal German social legislation code VII. This legal obligation to officially report an occupational disease is based on weighing the pros and cons in respect of balancing out an individual's right to privacy on the one hand and the (in this case predominant) public safety interests on the other. Legislation does not provide for the individual to effectively object to such reporting and hence the physician is obliged to report even if the patient objects. When doing so the physician does not violate his legal obligation to observe medical professional secrecy as defined according to section 203 German Penal Code by section 4 of the German professional medical code.