Patients’ privacy and confidentiality
In the field of medicine and health affairs, patients’ privacy and confidentiality are very important. Health practitioners must uphold the requirements of social ethics if the have to protect the social lives of the patients. For progressive follow up of health records, patients have to be granted the right to access the past health records. In many health organizations, software or information databases are used to store health records for patients, among other private details. It is important to point out that the information is transferred from analog to digital form by the IT employees who work as the in-health records departments. Before we insist on the essence to grant rights of access to the patients, it is important to verify the credibility, safety, accuracy, and quality of the data stored in the medical databases. Without ethics, it is very difficult to ensure the reliability of data as well as the effects on the information system.
Medical information about a patient is only useful when accessed when needed to form a basis of clinical diagnosis. A patient should have the right to own and interrogate his or her medical details any time they need to. Regulations codes set by health institutions in a way limit the freedom of access to the patients. The IT experts are only authorized to give a temporary mandate to the patients by following an institutional procedure. Sometimes, patients are denied access because the decision is left with the IT technicians who act as guardians of the information. We do understand the risk of leaving clinical information with the patients. It could be even more dangerous if serious details are left in the hands of a weak patient or guardians who don’t know what to do with the information. Consistency in health records creates a good basis for future medications of the patients. The health providers, on the other hand, operate under the professional codes of ethics. The punch line is in the mode of relationship between a patient and a physician, diagnosis and the application of technologies, and the professional use of medical data. A patient may be very uneasy when their health details are disclosed to other people. The question that comes forward is how to trace the balance of displaying essential medical records without losing the confidence of the patients. With advancements in technology, there is a question on how to incorporate health ethics in the software used in the medical field. It is desirable for patients to be able to access their health records from medical software. However, there are questions of whether the current software that is used in health organizations is a hundred percent safe and reliable or not. The paper seeks to establish whether there is medical software is sufficient to serve the purpose of storing the medical databases and as well maintain the professional codes of ethics as expected of all the health practitioners. A way of quality inspection, the paper also tries to find the compatibility between legal perspectives and the and the application of software models. Among other things, my paper will cover the investigation of the expected professional codes of ethics in the medical field in regard to the application of the software. As patients expect the service delivery to be mutual, the paper will also establish the hope the patients can be granted the right to access the medical records without ruining the doctor-patient relationship. The integration of software and the process of transferring analog information into the medical software is also required adherence to the expected code of conduct. With that in mind, we will also devote some investigation to the IT experts and the nature of their service delivery.
Statement of the problem: definition of medical ethics in regard to patients’ access to medical records in a medically designed software
The legislation of medical records in many countries has been the major limiting factor in patients’ historic records. We have the patients’ information in software, the IT experts, and the need for access. The procedures to be followed sometimes discourage patients who critically need access to their past records. How would it be if health organizations adopt software such that patients can log into their own personal accounts and access their details any time they require? How do we maintain the integrity of all the practitioners who, in one way or the other, have access to patients’ information? Most importantly, it is the assurance of the efficacy, safety, and reliability of the adopted software to guarantee proper service delivery to patients.
Literature review medical designed software
It is amazing to find how some operations and services can be left to a machine that uses coded algorithms. One amazing feature is that the algorithm requires very few technicians and multiple executions can be possible. Data is managed in a way that only the relevant personnel can access it using the validated credentials. When the patients land in the hospital, they can get directions, recommendations, and where to get respective services by interrogating the software (Mittelstadt, 2016). As indicated by this research, the algorithm may have serious ethical issues connected to human subjectivity and the configuration of private details. In the broader analysis, it may be difficult to capture all the details for al the patients in the large health organizations. The question of decision making remains critical in the application of medical software. We appreciate the findings and discoveries on machine learning, but machine intelligence cannot be complete in charge of serving the patients. Medical activities, unlike other practical fields, are very uncertain! Today, a patient will be diagnosed with one condition and another condition after some time Mittelstadt, 2016). it is clear that there is no universal algorithm that can correctly address the complexity of decision making.
From the findings of (Char 2018), machine intelligence indicates hope for even better services in the health sector. The IT experts are constantly upgrading the tools so that algorithms can function independently without any human support. (Char, 2018)Noticed the unwavering research in the field of artificial intelligence to enhance sound decisions by machines. The long-term objective is to replace the medical practitioners in the near future. We are yet to witness the practical application of machine learning in attending the patients. The ethical issues addressed by (Char, 2018) are the chances for partiality and biases of the humans in decision making. How well can the algorithm capture the reasoning of a doctor? We understand that software is limited to the coded command prompts. (Char, 2018) does not address the issue of difference in the approach treatments by different doctors. In connection to that, some health cases require immediate examination of health providers, which leaves the gap of the incompleteness of an algorithm. (Char, 2018) also challenges the intentions of developers of machine learning. From their research, the found that there are chances of developing algorithms under negative intentions. Of all the scientist in the field of artificial intelligence, then it may be difficult to determine the who have the ones with good intentions. Universality is a key factor to consider when integrating software or new technology. A gap is left in relation to the underdeveloped countries. It will be important to enquire about how the different thoughts by many clinicians will be incorporated. In other words, the patients’ interests must come first, including the issue of the language barrier.