This pledge of confidentiality, however, is now challenged by a world where computers rule and health information falls into many hands. Physicians are trained to peer into your life, past and present, and ask all sorts of sensitive, if not uncomfortable, questions. And how about your marriage € or marriages. Have you been depressed or been treated for mental illness. Have you ever used marijuana or cocaine. How much do you smoke or drink.

Doctors are supposed to be nosy. But the doctor-patient relationship was never meant to be other than confidential and privileged and solely for the benefit of the patient. And doctors take the Hippocratic oath, pledging to hold sacred their patients' secrets. Ever had a sexually transmitted disease. You get the gist; the experience is intrusive.

One might well ask whether medical privacy is just too outmoded a concept for today's information-hungry world. Have you used Botox or had plastic surgery. It's not just that they examine your naked body inside and out and record all its imperfections.

Patients expect it, or they would not be forthcoming.