Study Set Content:
still and must always play the preponderating part in the examination of the patient
The five senses
“A good physician now or in the future will never be a diagnostic robot.”
Sir William Arbuthnot Lane
should govern research and practice in the health profession.
Human values
We must share an important obligation to explore the moral underpinnings and () related to research and practice.
ethical challenges
Ethical matters in health informatics are, in general, less familiar, even though certain of them have received attention for decades.
Szolovits and Pauker, 1979; Miller et al., 1985; de Dombal, 1987:
➢ Informatics now constitutes a source of some of the most important and interesting ethical () in all the health professions
debates
are of vital importance and significant concern, there are other ethical issues including:
Confidentiality and privacy
and use of informatics tools in clinical setting,
appropriate selection
the determination of who should use such
tools
the role of
system evaluation
the obligations of
system developers, maintainers, and vendors
the use of () to track clinical outcomes to guide future practice.
computers
Informatics engenders many important
legal and regulatory questions
Application of computer-based technologies in the health professions can build on previous experience in adopting other
devices, tools, and methods.
Before they perform most health-related interventions, clinicians generally evaluate appropriate evidence, standards, presuppositions, and values. Indeed, the very evolution of the health professions entails the evolution of ,() of standards, o
evidence , standards , presuppositions, and of values
“What should be done in this case?”
1. What is the problem?
2. What am I competent to do?
3. What will produce the most desirable results?
4. What will maintain or improve patient care?
5. How strong are my beliefs in the accuracy of my answers to questions 1 through 4?
➢ New technology should be used with
caution and prudence
➢ …there is considerable evidence that electronic laboratory information systems () access to clinical data when compared with manual, paperbased test-result distribution methods
improve
There is less evidence, however, that existing clinical expert systems can improve patient care in typical practice settings at an acceptable cost in
time and money
Clinical expert systems are intended to provide decision support for diagnosis and therapy in a more detailed and sophisticated manner than that provided by simple reminder systems
Duda and Shortliffe, 1983
