Patient Confidentiality: Is it Trending from Absolute to Partial?

Patient confidentiality has long been one of the pillars of an effective doctor-patient relationship since ancient times. It has been accepted as a basic and scientific principle from various schools of thought and is based on trust; many great Islamic scholars have supported and stressed the importance of it. We sought to see if medical confidentiality is being undermined pursuing a trend decreasing from absolute to partial confidentiality. In this study several ancient medieval medical texts of famous scholars were studied and international rules and regulations were sought to see if there is a trend of patient confidentiality breach. Patient confidentiality is considered to be absolute especially with regard to medical ethics and it is and has been one of the pillars of a trustworthy doctor-patient relationship since ancient times. But we found it to be a changing trend. Medical confidentiality is trending from absolute to partial which may constitute a breach of medical ethics.