[Computers and medico-surgical ethics]

The confidence of physicians and surgeons in computerized medical systems is highly related to data reliability, while the confidence of the public depends on the protection of medical information in automated systems. In order to assure to patients medical data privacy, the MIM is of opinion that deontological and legal rules concerning access to identifiable medical data in automated information systems shall be the same as those that are applicable to conventional medical records. The access to medical data banks should be exclusively reserved to physicians responsible for patient care and to the personnel mandated by them.