eHealth and mHealth PPT Presentation

Running Head: EHEALTH AND MHEALTH
Legal and Ethical Challenges in eHealth and mHealth
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EHEALTH AND MHEALTH1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Electronic Medical Record..........................................................................................................2
Advantages of EMR....................................................................................................................2
Challenges faced by EMR...........................................................................................................2
Privacy and data protection.............................................................................................................3
Privacy and data protection of EMR...........................................................................................3
Importance of privacy and data protection in EMR....................................................................3
Access to information in electronic medical records.......................................................................4
Access to EMRs...........................................................................................................................4
Managing security issues.............................................................................................................4
How health professional use information in her and what methods are used.................................5
Privacy laws protecting patient’s data in Australia.........................................................................5
Ethical and legal challenges facing privacy and data protection.....................................................6
Recommendation of privacy and data protection in e-health..........................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Electronic Medical Record:
Electronic medical record (EMR) is the process by which the medical history of patients
are stored electronically and maintained by provider of EMR. It consists of patient’s past history,
medical issues, vital signs for the issues, immunization history, reports of radiology and
laboratory data (Pearce & Bainbridge, 2014). The relationship between clinicians and patient is
strengthened by using this technology. The providers are able to take better decisions.
Advantages of EMR:
The benefits of electronic medical records can be divided into organizational, social and
clinical outcomes. As clinical outcomes, EMR is advantageous for building a strong relationship
between clinicians and patients (Coorevits et al., 2013). Medical error is reduced while
improving clarity and accuracy of medical records by giving clinical reminders and alerts.
Previously patient medical records was made manually whose error rates were extremely high.
Electronic health records eliminated the use of manual records thereby reducing error rated
(Shoenbill et al., 2013). The quality of care provided to patients is improved. Organizational
outcomes include improvement in operational and management performances and societal
outcomes consist of conducting further research.
Challenges faced by EMR:
Challenges that are faced by electronic medical records are regarding safety, privacy and
security of medical data. Tools that are used for creating digital records are digital imaging,
internet and telemedicine (Moja et al., 2014). They are vulnerable to attack thereby, facing

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confidentiality issues. Sensitivity of health records has led to several challenges. The digital
environment allows remote access to records that makes EMRs vulnerable to attacks.
Privacy and data protection:
Privacy and data protection of EMR:
Electronic Health Records have gained a lot of importance presently with the
advancement of technology. However, it has triggered privacy issues. Unauthorized individuals
are accessing electronic medical records that consist of patient’s health conditions and other
personal information (Gajanayake, Iannella & Sahama, 2014). Confidentiality and privacy of
medical records are being compromised due to security lapses. Patients have the right to choose
with whom to share his/her personal data. However, security attacks to managing institution’s
cloud databases might hamper confidentiality of records. Data theft is also a security issue that is
being faced by EMR (Shoenbill et al., 2013). Hospitals and other such institutions store medical
history of patients in its databases. If this data were lost due to theft, institutions would face huge
loss of money.
As a solution to the above described issues, several bodies have laid down standards and
laws for electronic health records. One such standard set is HIPAA (Coorevits et al., 2013).
According to these standards, regulatory requirements should be met before the use of electronic
medical records.
Importance of privacy and data protection in EMR:
Health records of patients maintained by hospitals and other such institutions facilitate
decision-making and effective planning. It also eliminates use of human memory for this purpose