Ethics and Information Technology / Edition 1

by James G. Anderson, Kenneth Goodman

Overview

This series is directed to health care professionals who are leading the tra- formation of health care by using information and knowledge. Launched in 1988 as Computers in Health Care, the series offers a broad range of titles: some addressed to specific professions such as nursing, medicine, and health administration; others to special areas of practice such as trauma and radi- ogy. Still other books in the series focus on interdisciplinary issues, such as the computer-based patient record, electronic health records, and networked health care systems. Renamed Health Informatics in 1998 to reflect the rapid evolution in the discipline now known as health informatics, the series will continue to add titles that contribute to the evolution of the field. In the series, eminent - perts, serving as editors or authors, offer their accounts of innovations in health informatics. Increasingly, these accounts go beyond hardware and so- ware to address the role of information in influencing the transformation of healthcare delivery systems around the world. The series also increasingly focuses on “peopleware” and the organizational, behavioral, and societal changes that accompany the diffusion of information technology in health services environments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387953083
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	07/10/2002
Series:	Health Informatics Series
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	213
Product dimensions:	9.21(w) x 6.14(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Case Studies in Ethics and Health Informatics 2. The Business of CyberHealthcare; 3. Consumer Health Information: Let the View Beware; 4. Privacy and Confidentiality; 5. Bioinformatics; 6. Evaluation: An Imperative to Do No Harm; 7. Online Challenges for Human Subjects Research; Appendix 1. Ethical Standards for Web Sites; Appendix 2. Health Internet Ethics: Ethical Principles for Offering Internet Health Services to Consumers; Appendix 3. Assessing the Quality of Internet Health Information; Appendix 4. Principles Governing AMA Publications Web Sites; Glossary; Index

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: LouAnn Schraffenberger, MBA, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P(Advocate Health Care)
Description: This book presents an overview of topics and 130 case studies illustrating ethical and social issues arising from the increasing use of computer technology in healthcare. The book is one of 12 in a series devoted to health informatics. The series is designed for healthcare professionals who are leading the use of information technology in various aspects of healthcare. Some of the titles in the series address a specific profession (nursing, medicine, administration) while others focus on interdisciplinary issues, such as this one on ethics.
Purpose: According to the editors, the purpose is to provide an outline of some of the major social and ethical issues raised by the use of information technology in healthcare. The intent of the case studies is to serve as an impetus for discussion and they are designed to illustrate how thoughtful individuals identify and approach such problems.
Audience: The audience may include students in an information technology professional program, perhaps in a course that addresses organizational or interdisciplinary issues related to the use of technology. Another potential audience could be either individual practitioners working in healthcare informatics or a group of practitioners working for a healthcare organization who could use the book as part of their strategic planning or organizational development activities. The editors of both the series and this particular book are academic leaders in the field of health informatics. Many members of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) contributed the case studies.
Features: The book is divided into an introduction and six chapters, each corresponding to an ethical issue or domain interest. Each chapter contains an overview of major issues followed by a collection of actual cases and bibliographic resources designed to enable the reader to gain further insight into the issues raised. Although most of the cases are identified especially for this book, a few have become classics and are well known in the health informatics community. Chapter topics include online healthcare, availability of health information online, privacy and confidentiality of health information, and use of technology to store genetic information.
Assessment: This is a case-based approach to introduce practicing informaticians and students to the social and ethical issues of healthcare. The cases are short and easy to read and reflect many real-life situations the practitioner can appreciate. The questions posed for discussion are right on target. The references that are provided for further study are exceptional. Unfortunately, this is a subject that is often shortchanged in the classroom and the pressures of real-life prevent the practitioner from taking time to consider. I am glad that AMIA's working group on social, ethical, and legal issues set the stage for this book's development. Academic and corporate leaders of health informatics need to put this book into the hands of people who live with these issues everyday or who will be leading informatics in the future.

Doody's Review Service

3 Stars from Doody