Ethical Considerations in Electronic Data in Healthcare

Electronic data records in healthcare are increasingly being implemented in many developed and developing countries. Electronic records of patients include medical details, such as patient history, physical examinations, prescriptions, and treatments in computer databases and repositories. Physicians and hospitals are implementing electronic data records due to the several advantages these offer over paper records, including improving the quality of healthcare services and enabling genuine applications and solutions to the industry. However, this technology is associated with several types of public health ethical issues and concerns including security threats, privacy breaches, ethical dilemmas, and social and legal issues. These ethical issues not only hinder the potential of electronic data capabilities for public health but also threaten user adoption and trust in the technology and field.

This Research Topic aims to identify the ethical challenges of storing, transmitting, and manipulating healthcare medical records. Medical records include a vast amount of personal and private data that must be secured. Besides the technical challenges to maintaining the privacy and security of these data, there is also a social aspect that should be studied thoroughly. This Research Topic seeks to identify the different types of legal and ethical issues faced when dealing with medical records and how technology can address and handle these issues to ensure and promote public confidence and trust, as well as explore how these issues may hurdle the adoption of new healthcare technologies.

This collection aims to publish papers on the latest advances, as well as review articles, on the various aspects of ethical issues related to electronic medical records. Topics include common ethical issues associated with electronic medical records, reengineering healthcare administrative processes using portals and web services, and the ethical challenges of digital public health technologies. The fields of interest include but are not limited to:

• Ethical challenges with electronic data in healthcare that digital technologies are introducing, such as privacy, anonymity, security, and informed permission;

• Information technology, including hospital information systems, electronic medical record systems, standardization, systems integration, design, development, implementation, use, and evaluation of medical information technologies;

• Electronic medical records design and implementation. Autonomy policies;

• Innovations and future developments in E-health technologies and applications;

• Integration of health technologies for smarter and more secure applications;

• Visualization of health data, medical information management, sharing, transfer, and representation via electronic medical records and the Internet;

• National health information infrastructure;

• Patient privacy and security breaches. Effect of electronic medical records on the care of the patient;

• Strategy, implementation, privacy, trust, Process models, and quality management;

• Design and development methodologies;

• Ethical issues in big data, and electronic medical records, big data management in healthcare, data and text mining, AI support for clinical decision-making, and knowledge management;

• Healthcare applications of mobile (mhealth) and pervasive digital technologies;

• Telecare and telehealth; security, confidentiality;

• Security of Remote health, remote monitoring tools, and home telehealth systems;

• Modelling of healthcare service usage;

• Evaluation and use of healthcare IT.