LAWS6058 - Information Rights in Health Care
Objectives
- Examine the rights to information in the modern health care system including the rights of patients to access their medical records.
- Analyse the concepts of confidentiality and privacy and their application to health care and critically evaluate the balancing of public interests to privacy and public interest to disclosure of information.
- Explore the impact of technological developments in information technologies and genetics and the challenges they present for privacy.
- Analyse the meanings of competency for health care decision-making by examining the rights of minors to consent to medical treatment and by examining the legal protections that are provided for adult patients who lack competency to consent to medical treatment.
- Analyse the duty of health professionals to provide information to patients on the material risks of treatment and analyse the regulation of research involving human subjects and the requirements for privacy, provision of information and consent that arise in this area.
Content
The limits of confidentiality; privacy laws and health care – including genetic privacy and electronic health records; ownership of and access to medical records; competency to consent to medical treatment – including the meanings of competency, minors and consent to medical treatment; and adults who lack competency to consent; refusal of medical treatment and emergency health care; information about risks of treatment; information rights in medical research.
Session
Semester 1 Intensive
11-12 & 25-26 March 2010
Please note: This unit is compulsory for Graduate Diploma in Public Health Law (GradDipPubHL ) candidates. Master of Health Law (MHL ) candidates may select this unit as one of the three compulsory units required in addition to LAWS 6252 - Legal Reasoning & the Common Law System or LAWS 6881 - Introduction to Law for Health Professionals .
The timetable is subject to frequent changes. Please refer to the latest version of the Postgraduate Timetable.
Assessment
- 1 x Class Presentation with
- 1 x 1,500 Word Paper (20%)
- 1 x Take Home Exam (80%)
Courses this unit is available in
Master of Laws | Graduate Diploma in Law | Master of Global Law | Master of Health Law | Graduate Diploma in Health Law