The Regime of Medical Secrecy and Civil Liability for its Violation

Relevance. The article analyzes the institution of medical secrecy and the ways of its protection by a citizen as a personal non-property good. The legal regulation of the concept of «medical secrecy» in healthcare legislation has not eliminated the problems of its civil protection. The examples of judicial practice show ways to protect the information constituting a medical secret when they are disclosed by persons who are obliged to comply with it. Based on the analysis of certain legislative acts concerning medical secrecy, contradictions in the established guarantees of confidentiality of personal information about the patient were revealed. Taking into account the legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, accepted by the courts of general jurisdiction, the circumstances that are not recognized as a violation of the patient's medical secrecy are determined.

The purpose of the study is to supplement scientific knowledge about the regime of medical secrecy and the specifics of responsibility for its violation.

Objectives: identification of the peculiarities of the regime of medical secrecy and civil liability for its violation, identification of problems related to the implementation of the patient's right to protection of medical secrecy based on the analysis of the norms of civil legislation, scientific publications, the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, courts of general jurisdiction on claims for protection of medical secrecy.

Methodology. The work uses general scientific and private scientific methods of cognition: dialectical, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction, deduction, system-analytical and formal-legal.

The results of the study are theoretical and applied in nature and are aimed at finding optimal solutions for effective protection of patient data that constitute his medical secrecy. 

Conclusions. The author substantiates the need for recognition at the legislative level of medical secrecy as an independent personal intangible good; it is proposed to legislatively expand the range of subjects engaged in professional activities in the interests of the patient to obtain information constituting medical secrecy without his special consent.

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