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Introduction to Health Informatics

   

Added on  2021-04-17

10 Pages2906 Words136 Views
Running head: HEALTH INFORMATICSHealth informaticsName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor note

1HEALTH INFORMATICSIntroduction In the health care field, health information is bridged with the computer science for itsapplication in medicine, nursing, immunology and others and is thus referred as healthinformatics. Informatics plays a vital role in the data storage, support, making healthcaredecisions, electronic health care records. Health informatics is also useful in the education andresearch such as simulation system and data mining (Wiljer & Thakur, 2017). Electronic healthrecord is the collection of the patient health information in the digital format to be shared in thedifferent health care setting to speed the care giving. It contains range of data including medicalhistory, demographics, medication, immunisation status, medication and allergies, laboratory testresults, personal information and billing information (Atherton, 2011). Health professionals areconfronted with ethical issues related to the use of the electronic health record (EHR). There is aconflict among several ethical principles (Ozair et al., 2015). The essay is centered on the thesis,“EHR in the service of the patients involve ethical implications”. The essay deals with thediscussion on the ethical issue emerging with increasing use of the EHR. The rationale for thechoice of the issue and the key stakeholder associated with it are discussed in the essay. Further,the essay highlights the implications for the public and the policy makers. Why is the ethical issue?EHR assist in quick access of the patient health information and its update for speedingup the caregiving. Since this process uses technology it comes with side effects. There is thetremendous potential of EHR to breach the data and pilferage. This brings the issue of ethicalconcerns for the patients and the health care providers. It is because EHRs can only be createdwhen the sensitive data about the patient’s health is obtained. It is necessary and unavoidable and

2HEALTH INFORMATICSthe data eventfully becomes the property of the health care providers. These data can bemanipulated in several ways and is vulnerable to several breaches. These ethical issues arise thecore of the system (patient records), when the care providers share the information to the thirdparty (Bayer, Santelli & Klitzman, 2015). It is an issue because it may have serious unintendedconsequences such as medication errors, loss of data, failure to detect serious illnesses andothers. It was not possible sidestep these issues as the ethical dilemma may be different indifferent contexts. In some cases even sharing the part of the health information with therelatives is considered unethical by the patients. If there is deliberate attempt by the heath careprovider to access, share or manipulate the health records of the health patients, the ethical issueis even serious (Cederberg Walji & Valenza, 2015). There is conflict among ethical principleswith use EHR including the beneficence, justice, autonomy, and fidelity (Ozair et al., 2015).Even though beneficence can be universally acknowledged, autonomy is severely jeopardised. Ithappens when the patient’s health information is shared without informed consent. Mistakes ortheft leads to exposure of the heath data of thousands of patients. Patients feel insecured and tendto conceal their health information when there is lack of confidence among the health careproviders about the security of the data. Therefore, ethical Implications due to EHR are a matterof great public concern. Patient’s treatment is compromised as they develop unwillingness to share crucialinformation due to lack of confidence about the privacy and confidentiality. Some patients aredeprived equal access to health care services or health resources considering their socioeconomicdisadvantage, age or class. It results in breach of justice. It might have implications for thefamily members of the patients if the genetic information was involved (Goodman, 2016).

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