Question

Summarize in detail the most pertinent ethical principles in health informatics ethics.

Answer 1

Ans) The protection of private patient information.
- Patient safety.
- Risk assessment.
- Reporting design and data display.
- System implementation.
- Curriculum development.
- Research ethics

- Several ethical issues arise about the development and use of decision-support technologies. If such a technology is available, and might help prevent patient harm or improve patient outcomes, is the provider morally obligated to use it? Since the provider is the ultimate decision-maker, what if the provider relies on decision-support recommendations that prove incorrect? Is the provider morally (or legally) at fault? Does the vendor bear any moral responsibility for incorrect recommendations or faulty software? What if the problem is not faulty information in the system, but rather a poorly designed display that misleads or is easily misinterpreted by the provider?

- Legal
On the other hand, there may be legal liability issues if the provider decides not to make use of available decision-support recommendations.14 Government regulations and the courts would decide whether particular software programs could be held legally at fault under standards of ordinary negligence or strict product liability. Vendors commonly write “indemnify and hold harmless” clauses into contracts with purchasers to avoid such responsibility. But one could argue that vendors nevertheless bear moral responsibility for using best practices to develop and test their software systems.