Patient Confidential - is it okay to recount patients’ stories

As healthcare professionals, we meet people from all walks of life and collect stories along the way — stories of illness and convalescence. When we hear interesting stories, there can be an urge to share them. When something bad happens, you may want to talk and offload it onto your friends and family.

As we know, patient confidentiality is a core value in medicine. So what is permissible to share? Is there a way to share these stories while respecting the ethical boundaries?

In this episode, the Sharp Scratch team explores the ethical considerations involved in talking and writing about patients, and discusses the popular literature genre of medical memoirs.

Expert guest: Dr Matt Phillips is a sexual health consultant and a honorary clinical professor in genitourinary medicine and ethics at the University of Central Lancashire.

Recommended reading:

The ethics of medical memoirs. Link: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6270

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This podcast is produced and edited by Dom Byrne and Duncan Jarvies.