Information about patients: how confidential?

As an implied condition of the physician-patient relationship, an attending physician is expected to safeguard confidential information that he has obtained in order to effectively treat his patient. There are two components of the legal protection given to physician-patient communicaions. One is statutorily determined and is referred to as a privileged communication. The other has evolved through common law and is known as the doctrine of confidential communication. Their respective applications are distinct.