🔐 What is Medical Confidentiality?

Medical confidentiality means that any information shared by a patient—including history, diagnosis, test results, and even the fact that they visited a facility—must not be disclosed without their consent.

A patient’s voluntary agreement to a medical procedure after receiving full information

Rooted in Medical Ethics, especially autonomy

🔑 Core Elements

Disclosure – risks, benefits, alternatives

Understanding – patient comprehends information

Capacity – mentally able to decide (e.g., not impaired by Delirium)

Voluntariness – no coercion

Consent – clear agreement

Autonomy → Patient makes their own decisions (requires capacity + informed consent)

Beneficence → Act in the patient’s best interest

Non-maleficence → Do no harm

Justice → Be fair and equitable

🔑 Key Concepts

Confidentiality → Keep patient info private (break only if risk to others/legal duty)

Informed Consent → Explain risks, benefits, alternatives, and allow refusal

Capacity → Patient must understand, reason, and communicate

⚠️ High-Yield Rules

Capacity present → Respect patient choice (even if wrong)

No capacity → Use surrogate decision-maker

Emergency → Treat immediately

🎯 One-Line Memory Trick:

👉 “A BeNeficial Doctor is Just & Confidential”

(Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Justice + key concepts)

Drug elimination occurs through two main processes:

Metabolism (Biotransformation) – chemical modification of the drug

Excretion – physical removal of the drug or its metabolites from the body