Can You Record a Doctor’s Appointment? What Brazilian Law and the CFM Say

You walk out of the exam room with a prescription in hand, and by the time you reach the parking lot you can’t remember whether the new medication is every 8 hours or every 12, or which test the doctor said requires fasting. Recording the appointment seems like the obvious fix. The question is whether you’re allowed to.

This article covers the rules in Brazil. Recording laws differ from country to country (and in the US, from state to state), so if you live elsewhere, check the rules where you are.

The short answer for Brazil: under the law, patients can record their own appointment; under medical ethics, the right move is to tell the doctor and ask first. And what you do with the recording afterward matters as much as the recording itself.

The short answer, in four points

It’s not a crime. In Brazil, Law 9.296/1996, art. 10-A, §1, states explicitly: “There is no crime if the recording is made by one of the parties to the conversation.” You are one of the parties to your own appointment.
It’s admissible as evidence. Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled in Tema 237 (RE 583.937, decided in 2009) that “evidence consisting of an ambient recording made by one of the parties without the other’s knowledge is lawful.”
The CFM asks for the doctor’s agreement. The CFM (Conselho Federal de Medicina, Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine) addressed this in SEJUR Order No. 386/2016: a recording made by the patient is not prohibited and does not breach confidentiality, because the patient is the owner of that confidentiality. But the CFM advises that the doctor should agree to it, and the doctor may decline to continue the appointment if uncomfortable.
Recording is not publishing. Keeping the audio for your own use is one thing. Posting a clip of the appointment on social media is another, and it carries civil liability risk (see below).

In practice: record, and say so. That approach respects Brazilian law, the CFM’s guidance and, above all, your relationship with the person taking care of you.

Why so many people want to record their appointment

In most cases, it isn’t about distrust. It’s about memory.

A review published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (Kessels, 2003) gathers studies showing that 40% to 80% of medical information given to patients is forgotten right after the appointment. The more information there is, the smaller the share remembered, and almost half of what is remembered is incorrect. An appointment is exactly the moment when you get a lot of information, in little time, while feeling a bit nervous.

People who have tried recording confirm the reason. In a survey of patients in the UK (Elwyn, Barr and Grande, BMJ Open, 2015), the main motivation was to listen to the appointment again and share it with family. The numbers from the sample:

15% had already recorded an appointment without telling the doctor;
69% said they would record, half with permission and half covertly;
77% wanted their clinic to allow recording.

And it works. A review of 33 studies (Tsulukidze et al., Patient Education and Counseling, 2014) found that, on average, 72% of patients who received the recording actually listened to it, that in 60% of the studies patients shared the audio with others, and that access to the recording improved recall and understanding of the instructions.

What Brazilian law says, point by point

Question	Answer	Legal basis (Brazil)
Is recording your own appointment a crime?	No	Law 9.296/1996, art. 10-A, §1
Is the recording admissible as evidence?	Yes, even if the doctor didn’t know	STF, Tema 237 (RE 583.937)
Does it breach medical confidentiality?	No, confidentiality belongs to the patient	CFM, SEJUR Order 386/2016; CREMERJ Opinion 89/2000
Does the doctor need to agree?	According to the CFM, yes (ethical guidance)	CFM, SEJUR Order 386/2016
Can the doctor refuse to see you?	Yes, with no ethical violation, except in emergencies	CFM, SEJUR Order 386/2016
Does the LGPD apply to a patient who records?	No, if the use is purely private and non-commercial	LGPD, art. 4, I
Can you publish clips of the appointment?	You risk a court order to take it down and damages	Civil Code, art. 20

CREMERJ and CREMESP are the regional medical councils of the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The LGPD (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados) is Brazil’s general data protection law.

Notice the difference between the first two rows and the next three. The law and the courts say a recording made by someone taking part in the conversation is lawful. The medical council deals with the ethics of the relationship: it recommends consent and protects the doctor’s right not to continue a recorded appointment. Both hold at the same time. Recording secretly isn’t a crime in Brazil, but it can cost you the doctor’s trust and, if they notice, the appointment itself.

Recording is not publishing

Where people get into the most trouble isn’t the recording. It’s what comes after.

In Brazil, art. 20 of the Civil Code lets a person ask a court to stop the publication of their words or image, and to award damages, when it harms their honor, good name or reputation, or when it’s used for commercial purposes. A clip from an appointment posted out of context in a social media video is exactly the kind of case that ends up in court.

The practical rule is simple:

For you and your family: listening again, clearing up doubts, organizing your treatment. No problem.
For another health professional: showing the instructions to a second doctor or a pharmacist. Reasonable, with common sense.
For the public: no. If something seriously went wrong in your care, the recording is material for a lawyer, a patient ombudsman or the regional medical council, not for your feed.

How to ask to record without making it awkward

The right time is before the appointment starts, not halfway through. One direct sentence does it:

“Doctor, would it be okay if I record the audio of our appointment? It’s just so I can go over your instructions at home and share them with whoever helps me with my medications.”

A few things help:

Keep your phone in plain sight, on the desk. A visible recording is an agreed-upon recording.
Explain why. “So I remember the doses” sounds very different from a phone left running with no explanation.
Offer to pause during a more sensitive moment if the doctor asks.
If they ask you to sign a form, sign it. In Consultation Opinion 122.508/2018, CREMESP suggests that doctors may ask for a confidentiality agreement covering their voice and image, and note in the medical record that the appointment was recorded. It’s a way for the doctor to protect themselves, not an accusation against you.
If the answer is no, ask for the key instructions in writing: dosage, tests, follow-up and warning signs. You still leave with the essentials.

Caregivers, telehealth and doctors who record

You’re the companion. An adult child bringing an elderly parent, a mother at her baby’s checkup. Here it depends on the situation, and the safe route is to record with the patient’s knowledge and agreement (when they’re able to give it) and to ask the doctor, just like at any appointment.

Telehealth. According to CFM Opinion No. 17/2025, the CFM’s telemedicine resolution (Resolution 2.314/2022) allows medical encounters to be recorded with the express consent of both patient and doctor. For a video appointment, the same rule applies: ask at the start of the call.

The doctor wants to record. This changes things. The clinic is now processing the patient’s health data, so the LGPD applies: the patient must be told about the recording, the reason for it and how it will be stored. If you don’t agree, you can say no.

After the appointment: audio only helps if it becomes instructions

In the same BMJ Open study, some patients pointed out a real problem: the recording becomes “a new burden.” Twenty minutes of audio won’t quickly answer “what was the dose again?” Nobody wants to replay the whole appointment to find one detail.

This is where transcription and summaries make a difference. A workflow that works in Sintesy:

Record. In Sintesy, tap New → Record audio. If you’d rather use your phone’s built-in recorder, use New → Upload file afterward and send the audio.
Get the transcript and summary. The full text of the appointment becomes searchable, and the summary highlights what was decided.
Ask the appointment questions in Chat. Instead of digging through the audio, ask: “Which medications were mentioned and at what times?”, “Which tests do I need, and does any of them require fasting?”, “Which symptoms did the doctor say mean I should go back to the ER?”
Check it against the prescription. Medication names and doses are where any automatic transcription can get a letter or a number wrong. The written prescription and test orders always outweigh the audio.
Organize by treatment. Create a folder for each specialty or ongoing care (cardiologist, prenatal care, physical therapy). Before your next appointment, open the previous one and show up with the right questions.

For a typical appointment, Sintesy’s free plan, with 60 minutes of transcription per day, is enough.

What to take away from each appointment

Item	What to write down
Diagnosis or working hypothesis	What the doctor thinks it is, and what still needs to be confirmed
Medications	Name, dose, timing, for how many days, with food or on an empty stomach
Tests	Which ones, deadline, preparation (fasting, pausing a medication)
Follow-up	When to come back and with which results
Warning signs	What means you should seek care before the follow-up
Open questions	What went unanswered, to ask next time

If you leave each appointment with this table filled in, the recording has done its job.

What a recording doesn’t replace

Prescriptions, reports and medical records. Those are the official documents. The recording supports your memory.
Your health professional’s guidance. An AI summary organizes what was said; it doesn’t interpret your case or replace your doctor. Still unsure? Call the office or ask your pharmacist.
Care with your own data. Under Brazil’s LGPD (art. 5, II), health data is sensitive personal data. Share the recording only with people involved in your care.

In short

In Brazil, you can record your own appointment: the law doesn’t prohibit it and the recording is admissible as evidence. The CFM recommends that the doctor agree, and the doctor may decline to continue a recorded appointment. So say so up front, keep your phone in sight and use the audio only for yourself and the people who care for you.

Then turn the recording into something you can check in 30 seconds: medications, tests, follow-up and warning signs. If Sintesy handles that part for you, you have more attention left for the conversation with your doctor.

This article is for information only and is not legal or medical advice. Sources (Brazil): Law 9.296/1996 (art. 10-A); STF, Tema 237 (RE 583.937); CFM, SEJUR Order 386/2016 and CFM Opinion 17/2025; CREMERJ, Opinion 89/2000; CREMESP, Consultation Opinion 122.508/2018; LGPD (Law 13.709/2018, arts. 4 and 5); Civil Code, art. 20. Studies: Kessels, J R Soc Med, 2003; Elwyn et al., BMJ Open, 2015; Tsulukidze et al., Patient Educ Couns, 2014.