title: Some problems of confidentiality in medical computing.
abstract: Patients have a right to consider that any information about themselves will be regarded as confidential, but inadvertently, and, very occasionally deliberately, that confidence may be broken. Therefore the principles on which the computer system at The London Hospital is based rest on maintaining confidentiality but at the same time using the facilities unique to the computer to the fullest extent for the benefit of patients. The system is described in outline, and a note is added of occasions when it would be desirable to suppress information on a patient and the reasons for so doing.
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D003626:Data Display; D006753:Hospital Records; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations