Legal and doctrinal aspects of the concept of medical secrecy in Russia

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The article is devoted to the consideration of the concept of medical secrecy in Russia, its observance as the constitutional rights of citizens to privacy and guarantees of confidentiality of this information. The problems described in the article have become especially relevant in modern society, when all workflow processes become automated, which leads to an even greater likelihood of leakage of patients’ personal data. When studying this topic, the concept of medical secrecy was given, it was revealed what information relates to medical secrecy, as well as cases in which its disclosure is possible. During the consideration of these issues, problems were identified that arise when working with information constituting a medical secret, including negligence of authorized persons, digitalization of document flow in the healthcare sector, insufficient literacy of medical workers when working with information resources, poor awareness of citizens about what information they convey to medical organizations the imperfection of the technical means by which digitalization is carried out, as well as the problem of providing information constituting a medical secret to other persons after the death of a patient. The authors also proposed ways to solve these problems: toughening the punishment for the negligent attitude of workers to medical confidentiality, increasing the digital literacy of medical professionals, amending the legislation in terms of determining the specific goals for providing information constituting medical confidentiality after the death of a patient. In turn, amendments to the legislation will reduce the number of cases of leakage of patients’ personal data.