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Unit of study_

LAWS6058: Information Rights in Health Care

2025 unit information

This unit deals with patients rights to information in the modern health care system. The unit will focus on consent to treatment and will include discussion of capacity the duty of health professionals to disclose the risks of treatment refusal of treatment and emergency health care. The unit will also examine duties of confidentiality in health care ownership of and access to medical records and information rights in medical research. Available as one of the core units for students enrolled in the MHL and GradDipHL in addition to LAWS6252. Further information about this unit is available in the Sydney Law School timetable https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/4533/pages/postgraduate-lecture-timetable, unit of study outline https://www.sydney.edu.au/units and academic staff profile https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/about/our-people/academic-staff.html

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Sydney Law School

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Law
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
None
Corequisites:
? 
None
Prohibitions:
? 
LAWS3452 or LAWS5152
Assumed knowledge:
? 
None

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Understand, summarise, critically evaluate, participate in, challenge and advance the legal and ethical debates concerning confidentiality, information privacy, and consent in health care settings.
  • LO2. Understand and critically evaluate legal cases and statutes relevant to the dynamics of information-sharing between health practitioners and patients, and the relationship between patients and government agencies regulating privacy and health information rights.
  • LO3. analyse and assess the implications of digital technology on patient privacy and healthcare, including artificial intelligence and big data, and the impact of evolving healthcare delivery models on information flows and breaches.
  • LO4. Critically evaluate, participate in, and demonstrate understanding of debates about current laws and proposals for law reform relevant to confidentiality, health information privacy, and consent.
  • LO5. Clearly and effectively communicate ideas about confidentiality, health information privacy, and consent in both oral and written form, including by describing the individual learning process through the use of meta-cognitive and self-critical reflections.

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Intensive May 2024
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1b 2025
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Intensive October 2021
Block mode Remote
Intensive April 2023
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

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Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.