Keeping our patients' secrets

ABSTRACT

Protecting the privacy of the patient's medical record is a central issue in current discussions about a patient bill of rights, and controversy over a proposed "unique health identifier" has raised the decibel level of these discussions. At the heart of the debate is how best to resolve the inherent conflict between the individual's right to privacy and the need for access to patients' health information for reasons of public health, research, and health care management.