A Defence of Unqualified Pharmaceutical Confidentiality

Clinical genetics and the problem with unqualified confidentiality.

In his article “A Defense of Unqualified Medical Confidentiality,” Kipnis provides a persuasive argument as to why maintaining unqualified confidentiality is the most effective way of preventing harm to third parties in the health-care setting (Kipnis 2006). However, difficulties emerge when it is applied to the field of clinical genetics. The familial context of clinical genetics means that ro...

Syphilitic Iritis Treated by an Unqualified Practitioner

To the Editor, The Indian Medical Gazette Sir,?The following notes of a case may be of interest to your readers, illustrating as it does the danger of unqualified practitioners;? B. S., a Hindu male, aged 45 years, came to me with syphilitic iritis. He could not afford a full course of treatment so consulted a Baid (an hereditary ophthalmic practitioner). He applied a mixture of lime, washingso...

Between confidentiality and scientific exchange: the place of publication in drug discovery and pharmaceutical research.

To continue to improve life expectancy and quality of life, the discovery of innovative therapies should be among the prime goals of the life sciences. The large majority of the drugs that are discovered and successfully developed to the point of being used by patients come from the drug industry, but publications from this sector are rare among life sciences research publications. Publications...

[Confidentiality].

Confidentiality: a modified value.

In its original expression as a medical value confidentiality may have been absolute; this concept has become eroded by patient consent, legal actions and change in the climate of public opinion. In particular requirements arising out of legal statutes and common law judgements have greatly modified the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship in societies deriving their law from Engl...