All patients expect that their doctor will be open and honest with them. However, a new study that was developed by a research group at Harvard University seems to indicate that a sizable percentage of doctors may not always be telling their patients the whole truth when it comes to discussing a patient's condition or potential medical malpractice errors made by the physician.

The Harvard study, which was recently featured in the medical journal "Health Affairs," polled 1,900 doctors in a wide variety of practice areas. When asked whether they had ever lied or withheld relevant information from a patient regarding a serious medical error, approximately 11 percent of the polled physicians responded that they had. When the doctors who admitted to withholding information were asked about their motivations for doing so, the most common response was they were afraid of being sued.

Another interesting finding that was revealed in a complementary report by the news group "Truth on Call" was that some physicians were more prone to withholding information from their patients than others. According to the study, which polled 100 physicians working in various practice areas, 33 percent of doctors working in the field of cardiology admitted to being dishonest with at least one patient within the past year, while 25 percent of neurosurgeons and five percent of family practitioners admitted to "massaging the truth."

Surprisingly, 34 percent of the physicians polled in the Harvard study stated that they did not "completely agree" when asked if physicians should always be completely open and honest with their patients. This opinion seems to be in opposition with generally accepted principles of medical ethics and is a sign that steps should be taken to improve communications between patients and health care providers.

Source: MSNBC, "Many docs tell white lies, study finds" Feb. 8, 2012