Patient-physician privilege

The patient-physician privilege protects confidentiality of communications by a patient to a physician under certain circumstances, in certain courts. Its origin can be traced back nearly 2500 years to the [[Oath of Hippocrates:

“

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession [as a physician] … which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and never reveal.

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Federal courts, however, do not recognize a general patient-physician privilege. Some limited protection in federal court for communications by a patient to a psychiatrist may be protected.