physician-patient privilege

6.5

A legal right that keeps what a patient tells their doctor private unless the patient agrees to share it

noun
/fɪˈzɪʃən ˈpeɪʃənt ˈprɪvɪlɪdʒ/

Formal

: privilegio médico-paciente

Because of physician-patient privilege, the information discussed during your appointment will remain confidential.

Examples

Certain laws protect physician-patient privilege, ensuring private medical conversations stay between doctor and patient.
The court recognized the physician-patient privilege and ruled that the doctor could not be forced to testify against the patient.
The concept of physician-patient privilege is fundamental in medical ethics.
Can you explain the physician-patient privilege law?
Under physician-patient privilege, doctors must protect the confidentiality of their patients' information.
Due to physician-patient privilege, my doctor cannot share details about my health without my permission.
The physician-patient privilege ensures that what I disclose to my doctor remains confidential.

Surface Forms

physician-patient privilege singular

physician-patient privileges plural

Morphology

physician-patient + privilege

The components are compositional: 'physician-patient' clearly refers to the doctor–patient relationship/communication and 'privilege' is a legal right to refuse disclosure, so a learner who knows those words can infer it denotes a legal right protecting doctor–patient confidentiality. Although it is a technical legal term, its meaning follows directly from the constituent parts and is cross-linguistically transparent.

Etymology

Physician-patient privilege comes from the idea that a physician, a doctor, and a patient must be able to speak in private. The law gives them a special privilege, a 'right' to keep medical talks secret so patients will tell the truth and get better care.