Ethical
Issues of ICT Systems in the Healthcare
Healthcare
system is one of the most contested debates in both the developed economies as
well as the developing countries. In fact, the introduction of computer-support
reinforced this controversial issue due to the diversity of opinions,
perspectives and interests of the people. ICT has certainly revolutionized
healthcare in numerous areas including ensuring safety, monitoring and fiscal
accounting among others (Duquenoy, George & Kimppa, 2008). However, the
application of ICT in the healthcare has led to the rise of ethical issues
related to confidentiality and privacy, standardization, transparency, literacy
issues, liability issues, work ethics, and intellectual property rights.
Primarily, the ethical issues address the interests of the people as well as
their well-being. A major challenge in
addressing unethical behavior is dealing with logic reasoning that defines
morality. When individuals provide grounds for acting in a certain manner, they
engage in moral justification. Most of ethical theories are based on the logic
of reasoning morally and try to establish if there are genuine methods of
reasoning ethically. This paper highlights major ethical issues encountered in
healthcare as a result of using ICT systems in the day to day activities.
Healthcare providers often find themselves in ethical dilemmas in the above
mentioned issues that affect them directly or indirectly.
The
Ethical Issues
Use
of ICT raises transparency questions among the users as to whether they are
provided with models of how the system in place works. Users of the healthcare
system need to be notified when their activities affect the system in place in
line with the principle of responsibility. The question of whether the
application of ICT systems ensures standardization with regards to tolerance of
variations is an ethical issue (Kushniruk & Borycki, 2008). The biggest
question is whether the standards in place through application of ICT systems
have effects on quality and whether they reduce discrepancies and variations.
ICT systems application in the healthcare also raises work ethics issues among
the healthcare professionals. Whether they affect healthcare practitioners
negatively or affect organizational hierarchies. Confidentiality and privacy issues have risen
as a result of application of healthcare systems.
Questions
arise as to the limitations of sharing electronic information recorded for
patients. Also in controversy are the intellectual property issues arising from
use of websites in healthcare as well as database management in the healthcare.
Issues of liability also arise as a result of relying on health information
provided online (Kushniruk & Borycki, 2008). There are questions as to
whether healthcare providers should be held liable for publishing misleading
health information online. Last but not the least, there are concerns as to
whether the health information is made available to the users in a manner that
helps them to understand their health challenges in order to make informed
decisions.
The
Ethical Theories
Ethical
theories seek to answer questions of what is right or wrong as well as the
duties of individuals under certain circumstances. Absolutists and relativists
have different opinions with regards to morality theory. According to the
absolutists, the reasons for judging the conduct of human beings are similar,
independent of place, time and the people who are involved. Relativists on the other hands argue that the reasons
for judging the conduct of individuals vary depending on social, cultural and
economic needs (Messerly, 2000). Greatest happiness ethical theory advocated by
Mill and categorical imperative ethical theory developed by Immanuel Kant and
virtue theory are the most stunning theories that apply to the use of ICT
systems in the healthcare.
The
Virtual Ethical Theory
The
virtue theory focuses on building the human character. According to the theory,
professionals should act ethically after cultivating particular traits that
recognizes the right and wrong. It argues that people with bad character are
likely to act wrongly irrespective of the moral toolkit they are provided with
(McGlynn & Toner, 2009). With regards to application of ICT systems in the
healthcare, practitioners often find themselves in ethical dilemmas as to what
is right or wrong.
Great
Happiness Ethical Theory
Greatest
happiness theory on the other hand is based on the assumption that code of
conduct are build on universally accepted virtues, duties and ethical
principles. Several codes of conduct have been advocated by organizations,
universities as well as professional bodies in response to ethical challenges
facing the application of ICT systems in the healthcare. These codes of conduct
seek to shape the behavior of professionals in the healthcare who utilize ICT
systems in their day to day operations (Hill, 2001). They include E-health code
of ethics, ACM code of ethics among others.
The
categorical Imperative Ethical Theory
The
categorical imperative ethical theory advocated by Immanuel Kant focuses on analyzing
and understanding the ethical challenges. Kent argues that the moral experts
who possess certain profession should help in supporting ethical behavior with
social and scientific studies. He emphasizes on the need for consulting ethical
professionals in order to address the ethical challenges (Daniels, 2004).He
further adds that the problem with introducing ethical standards in paces of
work is the tendency for the new standards to conflict with the newly
introduced standards. He notes that understanding the internal rules is
critical in ensuring ethical behavior. In a nutshell, the categorical empirical
theory defines morality as a transformation of practices and norms in places of
work.
References
Daniels,
C. B. (2004). The evaluation of ethical theories. Halifax, N.S:
Published for the Canadian Association for Pub. in Philosophy by Dalhousie
University Press.
Duquenoy,
P., George, C., & Kimppa, K. (2008). Ethical, legal, and social issues
in medical informatics. Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science Reference
Hill, T. E. (2001). Contemporary
ethical theories. New York: Macmillan.
Kushniruk,
A. W., & Borycki, E. (2008). Human, social, and organizational aspects
of health information systems. Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science
Reference.
McGlynn, J. V., &
Toner, J. J. (2009). Modern ethical theories. Milwaukee: Bruce Pub. Co.
Messerly,
J. G. (2000). An introduction to ethical theories. Lanham, Md:
University Press of America.
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