Medical Confidentiality

Question 1

What is the definition of confidential?

Answer 1

Intended to be kept secret (adjective)

Question 2

What is the definition of confidentiality?

Answer 2

The state of keeping or being kept secret or private (noun)

Question 3

Who is known as the “father of modern medicine”?

Answer 3

Hippocrates

• Greek philosopher and physician who created the hippocratic oath

Question 4

When was the hippocratic oath written?

Answer 4

About 450BC

Question 5

What does the hippocratic oath describe?

Answer 5

Basic ethics of medical practice

Question 6

What is included in the Aberdeen University medical oath?

Answer 6

• I shall seek always to deserve the trust of patients.
• To this end I shall be truthful in my dealings with them, defend their interests, show due regard for their wishes, preserve the secrets which they confide in me as their doctor, as far as my duty to society as a whole will permit, and act fairly between one patient and another.
• I shall respect patients’ values, beliefs and traditions, especially where they differ from my own.
• I shall never abuse in any way the trust placed in me as a doctor

Question 7

What are the 4 domains of Good Medical Practice?

Answer 7

• knowledge, skills and performance
• safety and quality
• communication, partnership and teamwork
• maintaining trust

Question 8

Why is trust an essential part of the doctor-patient relationship?

Answer 8

Without it patients may avoid seeking medical help or may under-report symptoms

Question 9

Doctors are obliged by what to protect patient’s personal information from improper disclosure by what?

Answer 9

Ethically and legally obliged

Question 10

What is appropriate information sharing about patients essential for?

Answer 10

Safe care, patients may be put at risk if you do not have access to accurate and up-to-date information about them

Question 11

Medical confidentiality is based on what law?

Answer 11

Law of Contract and Equity, breach of confidentiality constitutes a breach of contract

Question 12

What will a patient be awarded if they can demonstrate they have suffered harm in court?

Answer 12

Awarded damages against the doctor

Question 13

What regulations protects patient’s data?

Answer 13

The New General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Question 14

What does GDPR stand for?

Answer 14

General data protection regulations

Question 15

What are the 6 data protection principles that the General Data Protection Regulations are based around?

Answer 15

• Be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Be processed for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not in any manner incompatible with those purposes
• Be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes
• Be accurate and up to date
• Must not be kept for longer than is necessary
• Be secure

Question 16

What are the different ways that the General Data Protection Regulation describes personal data as?

Answer 16

• ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’);
• an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person’

Question 17

Where special category data is used, what other condition must also be met?

Answer 17

One of the conditions in Article 9 of the GDPR

Question 18

What conditions described in Article 9 of the GDPR are most likely to be relevant in medical practice?

Answer 18

• The data subject has given explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
• The processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another person in a case where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent (Article 9(2)(c))
• The processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (Article 9(2)(g))
• The processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health (Article 9(2)(i)
• The processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes (Article 9(2)(j))

Question 19

What are the 8 principles that underpins the advice in the GMC guidlines on confidentiality?

Answer 19

1. Use the minimum necessary personal information
2. Manage and protect information
3. Be aware of your responsibilities
4. Comply with the law
5. Share relevant information for direct care
6. Ask for explicit consent
7. Tell patients
8. Support patients to access their information

Question 20

What are different situations where confidentiality can be breached?

Answer 20

1. With the patient’s consent
2. With other medical practitioners in the patient’s interest
3. Protection of other persons
4. Child abuse
5. In the public interest (terrorism, murder, culpable homicide, rape)
6. In the doctors own defence
7. Statutory requirements – prevention, detection and prosecution of serious crime
8. When directed to by a court of law