Health Information, the Fair Information Principles and Ethics

Abstract:

If advanced electronic patient records are construed as epistemic patient analogues in information space, then the traditional property-model of patient records is longer appropriate. A new paradigm is required. This paper suggests a new paradigm, examines its ethical implications and explores ways in which these could be reflected in legal and regulatory mechanisms. Special attention is paid to privacy, security and access relative to the so-called “fair information principles”.

Keywords

Electronic Patient Record - Fair Information Principles - Ethics

• REFERENCES

• 1 Bennett CJ. Regulating Privacy: Data Protection and Public Policy in Europe and the United States. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press; 1992
• 2 Flaherty DH. Protecting Privacy in Sur-veilance Societies: The Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, and the United States. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press; 1989
• 3 Sieghart P. Privacy and Computers. London: Latimer; 1976
• 4 U. S. HEW, Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens. Report of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems. Washington, DC: HEW; 1973
• 5 Westin AF, Baker MA. Databanks in a Free Society: Computers, Record-Keeping, and Privacy. New York: Quadrangle Books; 1972
• 6 Great Britain. Report of the Committee on Privacy 1972; 183 f.
• 7 Canadian Department of Communications and Department of Justice. Report of the Task Force on Privacy and Computers. Ottawa: Information Canada; 1972
• 8 Council of Europe. Resolution 73:22, Protection of the Privacy of Individuals vis-a-vis Electronic Data Banks in the Public Sector. Strasbourg: Council of Europe; Sept. 20, 1974
• 9 Kluge E-HW. Advanced patient records: some ethical and legal considerations touching medical information space. Meth Inform Med 1993; 32: 95-103.
• 10 Kluge E-HW. Biomedical Ethics in a Canadian Context. Scarborough, Ont: Prentice Hall Canada; 1992
• 11 Bradley FH. Ethical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1876
• 12 President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Making Health Care Decisions: The Ethical Implications of Informed Consent in the Patient-Practitioner Relationship. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office; 1982. (3 vols).
• 13 Skegg PDG. Law, Ethics and Medicine: Studies in Medical Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1988
• 14 Somerville M. Consent to Medical Care. Study Paper for the Law Reform Commission of Canada. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services; 1979
• 15 Bayles M. Professional Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1985
• 16 Garrett TM, Baillie HW, Garrett RM. Health Care Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1989
• 17 Veatch RM. Models for Ethical Practice in a Revolutionary Age. Hastings Center Report 1972; 02 (03) 5-7.
• 18 Engelhardt HT. The Foundations of Bioethics. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1986: 276 f.
• 19 Nicholson RH. ed. Medical Research with Children: Ethics, Law and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1986: 68.
• 20 Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1979. chapter 4.