Ethical questions must be considered for electronic health records

Journal of Medical Ethics 38 (9):535-539 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

National electronic health record initiatives are in progress in many countries around the world but the debate about the ethical issues and how they are to be addressed remains overshadowed by other issues. The discourse to which all others are answerable is a technical discourse, even where matters of privacy and consent are concerned. Yet a focus on technical issues and a failure to think about ethics are cited as factors in the failure of the UK health record system. In this paper, while the prime concern is the Australian Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR), the discussion is relevant to and informed by the international context. The authors draw attention to ethical and conceptual issues that have implications for the success or failure of electronic health records systems. Important ethical issues to consider as Australia moves towards a PCEHR system include: issues of equity that arise in the context of personal control, who benefits and who should pay, what are the legitimate uses of PCEHRs, and how we should implement privacy. The authors identify specific questions that need addressing

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 99,362

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Ethical Implications of Personal Health Monitoring.Brent Mittelstadt - 2014 - International Journal of Technoethics 5 (2):37-60.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-05-10

Downloads
91 (#199,565)

6 months
15 (#165,752)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?