Confidentiality of medical information: a study of Albertan family physicians

The author of this paper examines physicians' regard for the confidentiality of medical information in the light of their perception of their own role. Five case studies of increasing complexity of medical management and ethical issues, derived from practice and accompanied by questions relating to confidentiality and medical management, were submitted to randomly selected family physicians in Alberta. Analysis of the replies to determine attitudes to confidentiality and how the respondents perceived patients' best interests, and statements of how they would act in certain situations, disclosed that a substantial minority of the physicians were still prepared to breach confidentiality and exercise Hippocratic professional judgement in certain situations. The bases of confidentiality of medical information are reviewed, together with changing modes of medical ethics and the increasing trend to rights derived from patients, autonomy, and the ways in which these factors may affect the physician-patient relationship.