Chapter: Health Information Technology: Challenges in Ethics, Science, and Uncertainty

Quote:

There is arguably no better trigger for reflection on morality and its relationship to the law and society than privacy and its cousin, confidentiality. The demands of privacy are intuitively straightforward and the consequences of its violation obvious. Without a credible promise that privacy and confidentiality will be safeguarded, the task of fostering trust is frustrated. If for instance a patient believes that a physician will disclose interesting or salacious diagnostic data to others, the patient might not disclose information the physician needs to render an accurate diagnosis in the first place.

What I expect to learn:

To be aware of the challenges being faced by the health information technology

Review:                    

Isn’t it cool how we can be a part of some kind of experiment? No, I don’t mean being guinea pigs of some new medical experiment but this, technology. Being the ones to test new technology that continues to develop nowadays is an honor because once we are a part of something that will be great in the future for the next generation.

The chapter even included privacy in health information technology. Privacy is, most generally, as discussed in the chapter, the right entitlement or reasonable expectation people have that they are and will be secure from intrusion. Given the example in the chapter, it is obvious that society values both personal privacy and the law enforcement but in some cases, the police officer investigating a crime may and, in fact, must take steps to justify that her official need is worth the intrusion. “Put differently, privacy rights are not absolute, but may be balanced against other values. The same is true for confidentiality, which applies to information—medical records, for instance. Where privacy is customarily about people, confidentiality applies to information about people. Privacy is also sometimes regarded as including within its scope people’s concern about protecting confidentiality. Privacy is a broader concept.” – indeed as a broader concept yet privacy still serve as one of the most studied factor in information technology and one that is most protected.

What I learned:

·         Privacy and confidentiality

·         CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

·         Diagnostic Expert Systems

·         Prognostic Scoring Systems

·         ‘‘The Standard View” and ‘‘Progressive Caution”

·         PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS

·         Decision support

·         Status of the professions

Integrative Questions:            

1.    Define confidentiality as explained in the chapter.

2.    What is a clinical decision system?

3.    What is a diagnostic expert system?

4.    What is a prognostic scoring system?

5.    Differentiate the standard vie and the progressive view.