Question

What are the ethical considerations related to interoperability and a shared electronic health record?

Answer 1

Answer: Electronic healthcare systems are ICT based tools that are used to store, access, retrieve, process, manage as well as control health information. They are also used to deliver quality healthcare services to patients. Principles of privacy, the patient's right to autonomy and decision-making in the management of their personal health information, and concepts of fairness and equity in access to care and to information are just some examples of areas in which ethics can inform the provider's strategies and decisions. EHR is usually composed of patient demographics, progress notes,medications, vital signs,medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, radiology reports amongst others. an ethical obligation to develop and implement plug-and-play clinical devices and information technology systems. Potential improvements from doing so include avoiding or reducing adverse events, transcription errors and redundant testing. Clinicians will benefit from reduced alarm fatigue and time spent manually entering information.