Internet - Ethics of Online Medical Records Essays -- Exploratory Ess

The Ethics of Online Medical Records Abstract This paper describes the ethical implications of developing a national online medical database. Such a database would consist 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 womanhood 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 hard-boiled 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 F rancisco hospital. She concludes, Had we gotten the correct history, we could affirm saved this woman a lot of unnecessary testing and not cost her son his whole life savings 3. How ironic that in todays 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 beg that patients privacy may be compromised. Worse, confidential pati... ...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 metropolis 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? Physicians Weekly, Nov. 1998 Vol. XV 43.