Patient privacy and the complete medical history

How much do doctors need to know? With Internet-based personal health records on the rise, debate is intensifying:

“People are suddenly going to find there’s no way to compartmentalize the sensitive things in their health histories from the nonsensitive things in their health histories,” said Rothstein, a lawyer who also is director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

“Someone who is treating you for a broken leg doesn’t need to know you had an abortion 20 years ago.”

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