Do Patient and/or Physician have Right to Control Medical Information.

Abstract

An ongoing debate is underway on whether the right to control medical information required for objective evaluations and uncertain information should belong to the physician. In this study, the opinions of practicing physicians were examined. Information appearing on medical records was divided into 10 items, and physicians were asked whether the right to control each item belonged to the patient and/or the physician. More than 60% the physicians answered that both patients and physician have the right to control information such as the diagnosis, examination findings, informed consent, and treatment. All of these items can be categorized as personal data. On the other hand, more than 70% of the physicians believed that only physicians have the right to control information such as the process to reach a diagnosis, subjective patient information, uncertain information and discussion with other physicians. Those physicians who answered that that both patients and physicians have the right to control information such as subjective patient information were more in favor of the disclosure of medical records than the physicians who were against the patient's right to control such information (p<0.05). The results of this study suggest that the right to control medical information on medical records should be considered separately for each chart item. As the network of medical information advances, the right to control medical information will become a topic of increasing importance.