California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Jones v. Superior Court, 119 Cal.App.3d 534, 174 Cal.Rptr. 148 (Cal. App. 1981):
The statutory privilege protects only against disclosure of "confidential communications" between patient and physician, and while that term is broadly defined to include any diagnosis made and advice given by the physician in the course of the physician-patient relationship (Evid.Code, 992; see Britt v. Superior Court, supra, 20 Cal.3d 844, 862, fn. 7, 143 Cal.Rptr. 695, 574 P.2d 766), it does not include information which does not intrude upon that relationship. Moreover, the scope of the privilege and of waiver is itself affected by constitutional principles. We therefore move to consideration of those principles before attempting further application of our analysis.
Constitutional Right of Privacy
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