What to do when a patient’s relative tells you secrets

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.

Couldn’t read the article from the link (needs registration) but it sounds similar to a situation I posted about here.