The Ethics of Online Medical Records
Abstract: This paper describes the ethical implications of developing a national online medical database. Such a database would contain the lifetime health records of every U.S. resident by combining information from a variety of sources. The advantages of such a system are many, but in the end, the question remains whether patients want to trade privacy for better healthcare.
A lonely ninety-year-old Chinese woman walks into a clinic. Without any medical records, the physicians diagnose her with stroke, and she is immediately hospitalized. Two days later, her son arrives at the hospital, apparently quite angry with the doctors. He informs the physicians that her mother has been in this condition for many years, and should not be treated for stroke. Unfortunately, the treatment has already started, and the son is billed $12,000 for two days of hospitalization. This unfortunate incident was witnessed by Jennifer Danek, M.D. in a San Francisco hospital. She concludes, "Had we gotten the correct history, we could have saved this woman a lot of unnecessary testing and not cost her son his whole life savings" [3].
How ironic that in today's so-called Information Age, physicians have a shortage of accessible information on their own patients! This lack of information on patients has not only handicapped physicians, but also jeopardized the lives of their patients. In an attempt to fix this problem, some physicians have proposed the creation of a national database that contains the medical records of every American resident [4]. While the benefits of this system are many, opponents argue that patients' privacy may be compromised. Worse, confidential pati...
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...logy Revolution Brings New Ethical and Legal Risks." Psychiatric News (2000): 26 pars. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.psych.org/pnews/00-05-05/tech.html>.
2. Chapman, Audrey. Healthcare and Information Ethics. Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1997.
3. Danek, Jennifer, M.D., The Med School Survival Guide. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000.
4. Davis, Michael. Computerizing Healthcare Information. Chicago: Probus Publishing Company, 1994.
5. Orentlicher, David and Barr, Bob. "Is a 'unique health identifier' for every American a good idea?"42 pars. 26 Jan 2001. <http:// www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1571/n31_v1 4/21064144/ print.jhtml>.
6. Orentlicher, David. and Healy, Bernadine. "Point/Counterpoint: Should Americans' medical records include unique identifiers?" Physician's Weekly, Nov. 1998 Vol. XV: 43.
truth, if the science is used ethically, it serves the same purpose as any ethical and useful modification we have made to the external environment in which we live.
Today, you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. This information was once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department.
Wilson, S. (2012 Oct). PCEHR: Politically controlled electronic health record [online]. Medicus, 52(9). pp. 18-19. Availability: ISSN: 1035-6037. [cited 09 Apr 14].
The Dalai Lama is a profound believer of peace, compassion, love and nonviolence. He is considered by Tibetan Buddhists to be the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion and was meant to lead the people. Even though he has had a tough time throughout most of his life time and has struggles to free his homeland from the Chinese occupation he has consistently opposed the use of violence. “He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.” (The Dalai Lama A Simple Path and An Open Heart pp. 800).Dalai Lama, since then, began teaching about the Four Noble Truths, in order to demonstrate that they offer an insightful path to greater happiness for individuals, and for humanity.
The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, better known as the Privacy Rule, that took effect in April 2003 for large entities and a year later for small ones, was established as the first set of national standards for the protection of health information. This rule was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to meet the requirement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The Privacy Rule was born out of a need for health information to be appropriately protected yet still allowing the health information to be shared to ensure quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well being. It allows for the protection of the privacy of the patient and yet it also permits vital uses of information.
I have grouped the sociologists in Durkheim is Dead into three groups: macro to micro, micro and macro, and micro to macro. I did not place any one of the individuals into just the macro or just the micro categories. Each one fell into a group that I considered to be in-between.
Doctors, hospitals and other care providers dispute that they should have access to the medical records and other health information of any patient citing that they need this information to provide the best possible treatment for proper planning. Insurers on the other hand claim they must have personal health information in order to properly process claims and pay for the care. They also insist that this will provide protection against fraud. Government authorities make the same arguments saying that in providing taxpayer-funded coverage to its citizens, it has the right to know what it is paying for and to protect against fraud and abuse. Researchers both medical and none nonmedical have the same argument saying that they need access to these information so as to improve the quality of care, conduct studies that will make healthcare more effective and produce new products and therapies (Easthope 2005).
Privacy challenges. Privacy is a circumstance of restricted right of entry to an information regarding an individual (Knoppers, 2015). Brothers and Rothstein (2015) noted numerous other kinds of privacy, comprising physical, decisional, proprietary and relational or associational privacy. This study emphasizes on informational health privacy. When it comes to privacy issues the crucial question to explore is; how can leadership balance the right of privacy with the advantageous requirement for clinical data-access in EHR? The Privacy Act of 1974 is the US law that represents national standards to protect the private health information of individuals by mandating appropriate safeguards and limitations on the right to use and release of (PHI)
Waking up to a hot cup of coffee, relishing the cool tingling sensation of a cola with your lunch, or relaxing in the afternoon over a cup of tea, all have similar ingredient caffeine. Caffeine has been consumed ever since the 2700 BC, with its conjunction in tea, for the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. In 575 AD, the first use of coffee beans where in Africa where it was used as currency and food. Even more today, caffeine consumption has become an integral part of millions of people's daily lives. According to David Weaver, "Caffeine and theophylline are among the most widely consumed neuroactive substances. These drugs are consumed most frequently in beverages, but also are present in certain over-the-counter diet aids, 'alertness tablets' some analgesic preparations, and in chocolate, and are also administered for therapeutic effects." The problem with caffeine is that many students/adults are uneducated about this subject. Stereotypically, caffeine has been labeled harmless. However, most caffeine consumers have no idea how they react to their body chemistry, the chemical mechanism, the hidden side-effects, and the actual daily amount which they intake.
One part of human nature is to want to gain more power. Within this idea there are many parts. First is the need for humans to overcome nature. Another part is gaining more territory. The more land a man has, the more powerful he feels. Lastly, having control over their own lives and the lives of others contributes to whether or not they feel powerful. This concept can be seen in The Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels are discussing the industrial revolution.
Everyone has the right to the best medical care that health care providers can offer. It would be unjust not to collect data on patients if it meant that it would be detrimental to the quality of health care that can be provided. It is our duty to others to create systems that promote the most happiness and quality of health for everyone. The anonymity of the data collected also makes the collection of the data itself a just act. Because only the insurance companies have access to the individual identities of the data there is little risk of exposure and does not cause any unnecessary harms. If there were a data breach and personal records are released to the public, the benefits of the data collection far outweigh the consequences of the data leak. The ability to
Many of us have our coffee in the morning on an empty stomach. In fact, some of us even brag that our coffee IS our breakfast.
Specific Purpose: To inform the class about how a cup of coffee affects the brain.
Coffee is the first thing that people associate with instant energy on a groggy morning. “In the U.S., coffee is king of beverages” (Reinke) Research has been done that has named coffee as an addiction to the people who consume large quantities of it. Coffee was named the top source of antioxidants. This is partly because of the amount consumed each day. Some of the antioxidants that coffee has are quinines and chlorogenic acid. It also contains trigonelline, an antibacterial compound. This is where coffee acquires its delicious aroma. Now let’s step back for a minute and just think about how much caffeine people consume. In an 8oz cup of coffee it has about 85 milligrams of caffeine. This is about double the amount that tea contains. Studies have shown that caffeine stimulates the brain and nervous system. This is where you get that energized feeling. After about the third cup, knees start to bounce, pens are clicking and people start running laps around the office. Caffeine can become addicting if you drink too much. Coffee can become that addictive habit people are unable to shake.
What exactly is happiness anyway? Happiness is when you feel complete and satisfied. It is when you’re content with where you are and what you have. It is the joy of doing something you love, or spending time with someone you love. It is an emotion and the best one yet. Money can easily make a person temporarily happy with the possessions it can buy, but true happiness is more than that. People can have everything material wise and still not be happy. Sure it can buy you many things, but the happiness from it is only temporary and limited. There’s only so much happiness you can buy with money. Money can easily buy you food, a clock, a house, education, make-up or medication; however it can’t buy you nutrition, time, a home, knowledge, beauty or health. It can buy you infatuation, but not love, acquaintances but not friendship and hierarchy but not respect. People spend their entire lives trying to make more and more money thinking that it means success. They neglect family and friends, don’t care about who they take down to reach their ...