Doctor should keep the patient's record priacy?

In one of the latest examples of the debate over how much patient history doctors should have access to, Dr. Marc Overhage, recommended that patients get more control over electronic health records. "I certainly believe it's a patient's right to protect and control their information," said Overhage, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. However, he said physicians, in order to provide the best care possible, also need access to information -- sometimes including information that is more personal in nature. To best protect their privacy, Overhage said, patients should pick doctors and providers they trust. "They should be confident that the providers and those who work with those providers handle that information appropriately," he said.
The strongest privacy rights Americans have are health privacy rights, said Dr. Deborah Peel, "It's the most sensitive personal data," she said.Even in the Internet age, patients should have the right to withhold certain information, she said. "People forget that patients have never told every doctor everything," Peel said. "Patients have always carefully sliced and diced who they tell what under what circumstances. That's what the right to privacy means." The letter crafted by the federal advisory panel, sent Feb. 20 to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, noted that computerized health records hold great potential for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of health care. But the letter also noted that such records also mean that every doctor, nurse, pharmacist, chiropractor and dentist, and other health-care workers, have potential access to a patient's complete medical history.The panel also recommended that health-care workers be able to "break the glass" and access private information if needed in an emergency.

2008-07-22 17:42:59 補充：
以上講的是美國的情況, 可作參考 - 主要在 "平衡" 及合理保障病人權益.