It puts the doctor in a dilemma where there are no good options.
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Actually this is pretty simple.
The woman providing the family history has, by her request, consented to the divulging of her personal health information. The physician, now having knowlege relevant to his other patient and consent to reveal even the source of that knowlege, has a duty to act in the interest of the brother. No dilemma.
Perhaps the author of the story could find more troublesome matters as a case in point. This would arrise especially when the physician does not have the consent of patient A to reveal health information to patient B, yet the information is of significance to B. I’ve seen this happen more than once when HLA or ABO crossmatching for prospective donors to children incidentally reveals non-paternaty for the father.
“Recently, a woman came to my office. She told the receptionist she needed to talk with me immediately about a personal matter. She was shown back to my office”
She would have never made it past my secretary into my office.
“She refused to allow me to explain to her brother that the information came from her, which left me with a mess”
As a psychiatrist who runs an inpt addiction ward, relatives sometimes call me about patients. Before they begin telling me anything, I let them know that I will tell the patient that they called, and may discuss with the patient what the call was about. I let them know that what I tell the patient depends on the best interest of the patient, and not the caller. It’s important to let the relatives know the ground rules at the beginning of the conversation.
Couldn’t read the article from the link (needs registration) but it sounds similar to a situation I posted about here.
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