We talked about veracity and confidentiality today in my ethics class, and one of the main reasons for it today was out of respect for the patient. From what I’ve seen from shadowing several doctors (as well as comments from several medical students at another school), I don’t think “respect for the patient” falls very high on the physician’s list of priorities. Our lecturer made the point that HIPAA only came into play after the system did such a poor job of protecting patient data, and if we don’t get better, Congress might step in again and make the restrictions even tighter. We’ve got to do a better job protecting patient privacy, despite the tendencies to discuss patients in public.

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