Question

What is considered sensitive health information? What are some of the ethical issues related to sensitive health information?

Answer 1

Protecting health information by the organization and their third parties is a vital part of our ethical obligation to consumers.

Each of them having their own confidential information or secrets that do post publicly without any consideration.

Sensitive health information is otherwise called as private health information which is personal to each and every one of us and must be treated it as sensitively.

It may be either of 3 types:

*Printed: History taking, patient charts, evaluation charts, address, insurance etc

* Spoken: do not speak in front of others (patient private information)

* Electronic: Medical chart/Letter or other information that is stored digitally (Someone hacks into the computer)

$\rightarrow$ Ethical issues related to sensitive health information:

*Jeopardize the autonomy when patient health data are shared or linked to others without patient knowledge

*Fidelity is breached by the exposure of thousand's of patient's health data through mistakes or theft

*Lack of confidence in the security of health data

*Humanity is breached by sharing the highly sensitive health information

*Justice is breached when after getting the highly sensitive information regarding genetic matters, substance abuse, mental disorders, and other developmental disability matters and treated according to that result in dilemmas of resource allocation and providing health care.