Review recommends duty to share data when in patient’s best interests

A new duty to share information between agencies where it is in the patient’s best interests, while strictly protecting patients’ confidential data, has been recommended by a wide ranging review of health information governance in England.1

“The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality,” concludes the review by Fiona Caldicott, former chairwoman of the National Information Governance Board, and an expert panel. It recommends that this statement become a new “Caldicott principle,” along with the six principles set out by Caldicott’s 1997 report on patient confidentiality.

That report was produced at a time when the NHS was more paternalistic and less centred on patients’ …