Ethical Issues in Health Informatics

Ethical Issues in Health Informatics        

Clinical organizations are rapidly incorporating health information technologies into routine practice. Examples range from electronic records to robotic assistants to algorithms for rating health status and outcomes to home hospice monitoring.  As smart phones proliferate, individuals, too, are routinely using them to monitor their vital signs, communicate with other patients or doctors, track their exercise and diet, look for health information, and maintain personal health records.  These new technologies affect relationships and roles among patients and clinicians. We will explore ethical issues related to designing and using information technology in health care.  For example: What should be done by people, or people together with machines? What are the implications for clinical skill, patient empowerment and consent, privacy, patient safety, family interactions, health care costs and accessibility, virtual health care, and many other such concerns?

Faculty:

Bonnie Kaplan, Ph.D., FACMI, Lecturer in Medical Informatics at the Yale School of Medicine, a Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics Scholar

Reading(s):

Kaplan, Bonnie, and Sergio Litewka. “Ethical Challenges of Telemedicine and Telehealth.” Cambridge Q. Healthcare Ethics Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 17.04 (2008): n. pag. Web.

Kaplan, Bonnie, and Sofia Ranchordas. “MHealth for Alzheimer’s Disease: Regulation, Consent, and Privacy Concerns.” Social Science Research Network. Fordham University Press, 16 Apr. 2016. Web.

Worth, Tammy. “Telehealth: The Balance between Access and Ethics.” Medical Economics. N.p., 10 Dec. 2015. Web. 07 July 2016.

Handout:

Kaplan Handout – GBI Summer School 2016