Le dossier médical personnel du patient : réflexions sur le portail d’accès unique et le masquage du dossier

Abstract

Objectives The Social Security Finance Act of the 19th December 2007 specified two fundamental principles of the Personal Medical Record that raise a number of questions: the single portal and the masking of information. Materials and methods According to the act, the existence of a portal will allow beneficiaries of National Health Insurance to manage both their Personal Medical Record and right of access of health-care professionals to the information therein and will ensure the control and traceability of access to Personal Medical Records. This is a major issue as much for the protection of patients’ privacy as for the promoters of the system and portal managers who could be held liable in cases of breaches of security. Moreover, the law provides for the right of the patient, or his/her legal representative to make certain information in the record inaccessible. Our thoughts bear on the methods that will be used to enable the health-care professional with access to the record to know or not to know what information contained in the record has been rendered inaccessible by the patient or his/her legal representative and what is meant by the term “masking of masks”. Masking of masks raises important questions because it could constitute a violation of the doctor patient relationship. Conclusion Though the patients’ right to mask the presence of masked information is not in question, the doctor should be informed, not about the nature of the masked information, but about its existence.