隱私權及病人隱私權之概念與法律規範

The Concepts and Current Legislation Relating to Privacy and Patients’ Privacy

隱私是基於個人對自我的認知，隱私權是一種體現文明與社會進步的人格權，「隱私的權利」被定義為「不受外界干擾的權利」。醫療行為是社會活動的一部分，醫療資訊較一般個人其他資訊私密。病人需要「隱私」，未徵得病人同意，醫療院所提供醫療服務時，相關業務人員不得向他人公開醫療資訊，即使病人死後亦然。本文目的在了解我國現行有關隱私權及病人隱私權的立法規範，如何保護極為隱私的病人資訊，是目前各大醫療院所對於資訊安全管理上重要的課題。本文建議醫護人員應對隱私權在法律上的規定多加了解，唯有如此，方能避免醫護人員對基本人權（隱私權、人格權）和病人權利的認知不清而產生之醫療糾紛，而使病人隱私權之維護落實在每日的醫療實務中。

Privacy is based on individual self-awareness, and is a reflection to rights of personality in the civilization and social progression. “The right to privacy” has been defined as “a right subject to not being interrupted by others”. The medical behavior is a part of social activities. Personal medical information is more private than any other personal information, in general. Patients need “privacy”. The healthcare providers should not divulge patients’ medical information to others without his/her consent; even though these patients were dead. The purpose of this article is to understand the concepts and current legislation relating to privacy and patients’ privacy, in Taiwan. How to protect patient’s private information is an important issue in the security management of medical information for healthcare providers. This article suggests that understanding for patient’s right to privacy is necessary, so that the protection of patients’ privacy can be maintained in law basis, and can be implemented in routine medical practice.