confidentiality

confidentiality
n.
a strong and longstanding obligation, arising out of common law, that requires doctors to keep any personal information about their patients private. A doctor automatically assumes such an obligation during a patient consultation. Sometimes it is permissible or even obligatory to breach a patient's confidence, e.g. when a patient suffers from a notifiable disease. Interestingly, HIV has not been made a notifiable disease in the UK, in order to encourage patients to come forward for testing and treatment. This means that it is the legal responsibility of the patient to inform any potential sexual partners that he or she has the virus; the doctor is legally required to provide suitable advice on safe sex but must not breach confidentiality.
Derivatives:
confidential adj.

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  • confidentiality — con‧fi‧den‧ti‧al‧i‧ty [ˌkɒnfdenʆiˈælti ǁ ˌkɑːn ] noun [uncountable] the practice of keeping private information secret: • He raised concerns that departmental confidentiality had been breached. • a confidentiality agreement * * *… …   Financial and business terms

  • confidentiality — index privacy Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 confidentiality …   Law dictionary

  • confidentiality — n. the state or attribute of being secret; privacy; as, you must respect the confidentiality of your client s communications. [WordNet 1.5 +PJC] 2. discretion in keeping secret information. [WordNet 1.5] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Confidentiality — Confidential redirects here. For other uses, see Confidential (disambiguation). Confidentiality is an ethical principle associated with several professions (e.g., medicine, law). In ethics, and (in some places) in law and alternative forms of… …   Wikipedia

  • confidentiality — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ complete, strict, total ▪ It is important to maintain strict confidentiality at all times. ▪ client, patient ▪ To maintain patient confiden …   Collocations dictionary

  • confidentiality — n. 1) to maintain confidentiality 2) to violate confidentiality 3) strict confidentiality * * * strict confidentiality to maintain confidentiality to violate confidentiality …   Combinatory dictionary

  • confidentiality — con|fi|den|ti|al|i|ty [ˌkɔnfıdenʃiˈælıti US ˌka:n ] n [U] a situation in which you trust someone not to tell secret or private information to anyone else ▪ The relationship between attorneys and their clients is based on confidentiality. breach… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • confidentiality — noun (U) a situation in which you trust someone not to tell secret or private information to anyone else: The relationship between attorneys and their clients is based on confidentiality. | breach of confidentiality (=an occasion when someone… …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • confidentiality — confidential ► ADJECTIVE 1) intended to be kept secret. 2) entrusted with private information: a confidential secretary. DERIVATIVES confidentiality noun confidentially adverb …   English terms dictionary

  • confidentiality — noun 1. the state of being secret (Freq. 1) you must respect the confidentiality of your client s communications • Derivationally related forms: ↑confidential • Hypernyms: ↑privacy, ↑privateness, ↑secrecy, ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

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