Medical privacy

Medical privacy, or health privacy, is the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of patient records. It involves both the conversational discretion of health care providers and the security of medical records. The terms can also refer to the physical privacy of patients from other patients and providers while in a medical facility, and to modesty in medical settings. Modern concerns include the degree of disclosure to insurance companies, employers, and other third parties. The advent of electronic medical records (EMR) and patient care management systems (PCMS) have raised new concerns about privacy, balanced with efforts to reduce duplication of services and medical errors.

Most developed countries including Australia, Canada, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, and the Netherlands have enacted laws protecting people's medical health privacy. However, many of these health-securing privacy laws have proven less effective in practice than in theory. In 1996, the United States passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which aimed to increase privacy precautions within medical institutions.

History

The history of medical privacy traces back to the Hippocratic Oath, which mandates the secrecy of information obtained while helping a patient.

Before the technological boom, medical institutions relied on the paper medium to file individual medical data.