Patients' Rights of Access to their Health Records

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Davies
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
Health Records ◽  
Patients Rights ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
The Common

This article examines differing judicial attitudes to common law rights of access to health records in three jurisdictions. It argues that these serve as an indicator of judicial commitment to the concept of patient self-determination. It suggests that the common law in England and Wales and Australia is out of step with an openness beginning to pervade health care and discusses why this might be so. Finally, the Canadian fiduciary model of the doctor-patient relationship is applauded for reconciling patient autonomy with the beneficient practice of medicine.

The legal and ethical aspects of telemedicine. 1: Confidentiality and the patient's rights of access

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Stanberry
Keyword(s):  
Medical Records ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Medical Data ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Patients Rights ◽  
Patient’S Rights ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Uk

This paper reviews the principle of confidentiality and the rights of access by patients to their medical records. Confidentiality has been germane to the ethics of medical practice since the time of Hippocrates but the nature of the legal obligation of confidence does not have such a clear pedigree. The introduction of crossborder telemedical consultations presents a very real danger to maintaining the confidentiality of medical data. While both the common law and statute law can be used to prevent the unauthorized interception and disclosure of medical data and protect the patient's rights of access and ownership in the UK, it is the harmonization regime of the European Union that will bring comprehensive regulation and legal clarity to the protection of patients' rights within an increasingly international medical super-specialty'.

Personal Health Records Status-Quo and Future Perspectives

2010 ◽  
pp. 43-63
Author(s):  
Simon Y. Liu,
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Personal Health Record ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Personal Health Records ◽  
Controlled Vocabulary ◽  
Care Process ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Health Records ◽  
Access To Health

Consumers, industry, and government have recently focused attention on the potential of personal health records to empower patients in the health care process, improve patient-provider relationships, facilitate patient access to health information, and improve the quality of health care. A Personal Health Record (PHR) is a private and secure digital record that is created, managed, and owned by an individual, and contains the owner’s relevant health information. The benefits of PHRs have not yet been widely realized due to several significant challenges in their adoption, including the need for privacy, security, and interoperability, and the lack of accepted standards. Although many players in the healthcare arena are beginning to offer partial solutions, none have adequately addressed the full range of challenges. The adoption of PHRs can be significantly accelerated by the development of Open Source software that enables an individual to collect, create, organize, and manage his or her own private and secure PHR, using a standardized format and controlled vocabulary.

scholarly journals The Moral Dangers of Technocratic Medicine

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 231-238
Author(s):  
John M. Travaline
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Compassionate Care ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
The Common

Current healthcare practices are becoming increasingly threatened by technocracy, and the influence of technocratic oversight of medicine as a profession compromises good, compassionate care. A real-life case illustrating how technocratic oversight in health care threatens the practice of medicine and health care in general serves as a basis for discussing some of the common perils inherent in a technocratic model of medicine. This article suggests antidotes and concludes with alternate pathways to practice medicine amid technocratic challenges. Summary: This article discusses technocracy in current U.S. healthcare in order to raise awareness of its potentially negative effects. It then offers an overview of remedies based on Christian anthropology.

Argumentation and informed consent in the doctor–patient relationship

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Bickenbach
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Argumentation Theory ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
Doctor Patient Relationship ◽  
Consent To Treatment

Argumentation theory has much to offer our understanding of the doctor-patient relationship as it plays out in the context of seeking and obtaining consent to treatment. In order to harness the power of argumentation theory in this regard, I argue, it is necessary to take into account insights from the legal and bioethical dimensions of informed consent, and in particular to account for features of the interaction that make it psychologically complex: that there is a fundamental asymmetry of authority, power and expertise between doctor and patient; that, given the potential for coercion, it is a challenge to preserve the interactive balance presumed by the requirement of informed consent; and finally that the necessary condition that patients be ‘competent to consent’ may undermine the requirement of respecting patient autonomy. I argue argumentation theory has the resources to deal with these challenges and expand our knowledge, and appreciation, of the informed consent interaction in health care.

Patients’ Rights in Laboratory Examinations: do they realize?

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 451-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Leino-Kilpi ◽  
Tarja Nyrhinen ◽  
Jouko Katajisto
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Clinical Chemistry ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Patients Rights ◽  
Physical Integrity ◽  
Laboratory Examinations ◽  
Common Laboratory ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

This article discusses the rights of patients who are attending hospital for the most common laboratory examinations and who may also be taking part in research studies. A distinction is made between five kinds of rights to: protection of privacy, physical integrity, mental integrity, information and self-determination. The data were collected ( n = 204) by means of a structured questionnaire specifically developed for this study in the clinical chemistry, haematological, physiological and neurophysiological laboratories of one randomly selected university hospital in Finland. The analysis of the data was statistical. On the whole, patients’ rights were realized reasonably well. This was most particularly the case with protection of privacy, as well as with the rights of physical and mental integrity. The rights to information and self-determination were less well realized. There are various steps that health care professionals and organizations can take to make sure that patients can enjoy their full rights, by counselling the patient, by giving opportunities to plan the examinations in advance, and by arranging a sufficient number of small examination rooms.

scholarly journals The Inviolability of Medical Confidentiality in Malaysia: An Analysis of the Rules and Exceptions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puteri Nemie Jahn Kassim ◽  
Nazri Ramli
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Hippocratic Oath ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
Medical Confidentiality ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Rules And Exceptions

The duty of medical confidentiality has been one of the core duties of medical practice as information created, disclosed, acquired directly or indirectly during the doctor-patient relationship is considered confidential and requires legitimate protection. Further, preserving confidentiality on the premise that the relationship between doctor and patient has been built on trust and confidence renders the duty to be seen as sacrosanct. The source for this duty can be found not only in the Hippocratic Oath, codes of ethics, religious tenets but also in the common law, principles of equity and statutory provisions. Nevertheless, technological advancements and the growth of social networks have contributed to the difficulties in preserving confidentiality as the information gathered tends to become vulnerable in unsecure environments. However, the duty of medical confidentiality is by no means absolute as it can be breached in situations in which there are stronger conflicting duties. This article discusses the rules governing the duty of medical confidentiality and the exceptions in which infringements to this duty become justified. It also gives an overview of the duty of confidentiality under Islamic law. It concludes that the inviolability of this duty may be without doubt but circumstances warranting its disclosure are crucial to serve the interests of justice.

Ethics, consent, benefit, and risk in anaesthetic practice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart White
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Surgery ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
Doctor Patient Relationship ◽  
Anaesthetic Practice ◽  
The Common ◽  
Benefit And Risk

Anaesthesia involves risk. Anaesthetists are asked routinely to anaesthetize increasingly sicker patients for increasingly invasive surgery, challenging the morality that underpins the doctor–patient relationship, and placing themselves at relatively increased risks of litigation. This chapter reviews the ethical principles that govern anaesthetists’ interactions with patients, and describes how the common law and statutes affecting the practice of anaesthesia have evolved from these principles, focusing on consent and the provision of information about risk for patients.

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