• The professional secrecy is penalized by article 622 of the Italian Criminal Code.
• The Code of Medical Ethics also enforces the professional confidentiality. The physician should maintain secrecy about everything that is entrusted to him and about what he can know due to his profession; he should also keep maximum reservation about professional performances that have been carried out or that are planned, in respect of the principles that guarantee the protection of confidentiality. Revealing such information is very serious if the physician takes profit of it, for himself or others, or harms the patient or others.
• There are three legitimate reasons for revealing such information (except strict obedience to specific legal regulations):

• the request or authorization from the assisted person or his legal representative, after specific information about the consequences or the opportunities of the revelation of the information;
• the urgency to safeguard the life or the health of the interested person or a third party, in the case the person himself is not in the possibility to provide consent due to physical incapacity, the incapacity to act or the incapacity to understand or to want;
• the urgency to safeguard the life or the health of a third party, in case of refusal, but after previous authorization of the Guarantor for the protection of personal data.

• The information can be provided to a third party, provided that the patient explicitly consents to it. In the event of grave danger to the health or life of any third person, information can be given without the patients’ consent upon the Guarantor’s (Italian Data Protection Commissioner) authorization.
• The physician should protect the confidentiality of personal data and of the documents in his possession regarding persons, even if these are entrusted to computer coding or systems. The physician should inform his collaborators of the duty of professional confidentiality and should take care that they comply with this duty.

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