The problems related to confidentiality and effectiveness of health care.

The problem of the impact of confidentiality on health effectiveness is discussed along five points: (1) Communication facilities between health departments are main features of health information systems. (2) Efforts, costs, limits of data protection. The privacy violation risks have to be related to the data protection costs. (3) Paradox of the fundamental rights to confidentiality regarding privacy of the individual and the preponderant interest of the State. (4) Facing the increasing health costs, the need for medical and hospital control systems is assessed. (5) New benefits in medicine and in the quality of care are partly the results of more or less extensive studies in epidemiology at national levels. The general conclusion is concerned with the risks that the computer could become an instrumental substitute for human reason with the progressive drop out of responsibility of health officers.