Survey shows that at least some physicians are not always open or honest with patients.

Honesty and transparency with patients are core components of physician professionalism. However, this survey of practicing physicians found that many deviate from these expectations. Although in principle most physicians supported disclosing errors to patients, nearly one-third reported that they would not fully disclose even a serious error, and a large proportion of physicians reported not disclosing financial relationships with drug or device companies to patients. These findings are similar to those found in an earlier classic study of physicians' attitudes toward professionalism.

                      This article presents data from a 2009 survey of 1,891 practicing physicians nationwide. The survey assessed how widely physicians endorse and follow the Charter on Medical Professionalism's principles on openness and honesty in physicians' communication with patients. Overall, approximately one-third of physicians did not completely agree with disclosing serious medical errors to patients, almost one-fifth did not completely agree that physicians should never tell a patient something untrue, and nearly two-fifths did not completely agree that they should disclose their financial relationships with drug and device companies to patients.

                  Just over one-tenth said they had told patients something untrue in the previous year. Our findings raise concerns that some patients might not receive complete and accurate information from their physicians, and doubts about whether patient-centered care is broadly possible without more widespread physician endorsement of the core communication principles of openness and honesty with patients.

           What is your opinion regarding this behaviour of Doctors toward patient,should we be more informative and communicating to patients in atrue sense or we should hide something from them ?