Topics in Usability
Medical Ethics

Articles Medical Ethics Codes

Related Topics:
Professional Ethics
Trust and Persuasion

These links were collected by Francie Fleek for a panel discussion at CHI 2001 and have been added to since then.

Articles

(Links collected by Francie Fleek)

Human Error: Designing for Error in Medical Information Systems or "Don't worry--it always beeps when you do that!" by Ramon M. Felciano, Stanford University, 1995
Human Error in Medicine bibliography
The paper includes suggestions for what a developer can do to improve the situation:

• Have "error awareness"
• Take a systemic view
• Use errors as tools to analyze your design.
• Be willing to redesign.
• Use simulations when possible.
• Automate data collection for error analysis.
• Perform structured evaluations to estimate human performance.
• Anticipate error through better coding.

Critical Legal Issues of the Patient Record by Elizabeth Bowman and Mary McCain, The University of Tennessee-Memphis, 1998 (abstract only from EEI21 - The Ethics of Electronic Information in the 2st Century conference). Note the next conference will be October 18-21, 2001 in Memphis

Open-Source Medical Information Management by Daniel L. Johnson, 1999
An outpatient physician makes a case for open software for the electronic patient record.

Practical Software Engineering – Social, Ethical and Professional Issues. Course outline by Rob Kremer
Includes outlines of the ACM and IEEE codes of ethics, including brief case studies. This article includes a reprint of those codes in a relatively easy to read format. Bibliography includes references from CACM and IEE. This article includes a reprint of those codes.

Medical Ethics - Ethical Codes Web Sites

Ethics On The World Wide Web – bibliography of medical ethics web sites
Also related pages on computers and other ethical areas  http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/ethics/ethics_list.html

Towards ethical guidelines for e-health: JMIR (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
Theme Issue on eHealth Ethics – January 2001
Their editorial outlines issues in online medical ethics, including a swipe at the HONCode (which is answered on the HON site at: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/jeers/jmir_hon_reply.html)

EHealth Code of Ethics
On Wednesday, May 24, 2000 the eHealth Ethics Initiative introduced an International Code of Ethics for health care sites and services on the Internet. The event took place at the Dirksen Senate Building in Washington, DC.

Internet Healthcare Coalition home page
EHealth Ethics Initiative
Code of Ethics (PDF download in English and Spanish from this page)

Summary: Anyone who users the Internet for health-related reasons has a right to expect that organizations and individuals who provide health information, products or services online will uphold the following guiding principles

1. Candor: Disclose information that if known by consumers would likely affect consumers’ understanding or use of the site or purchase or use of a product or service.
2. Honesty: Be truthful and not deceptive
3. Quality: Provide health information that is accurate, easy to understand,and up-to-date.
   And
   Provide the information users need to make their own judgements about the health information, products or services provided by the site.
4. Informed Consent: Respect users’ right to determine whether or how their personal information may be collected, used, or shared.
5. Privacy: Respect the obligation to protect users’ privacy.
6. Professionalism in Online Health Care: Respect fundamental ethical obligations to patients and clients.
   And
   Inform and educated patients and clients about the limitations of online health care.
7. Responsible Partnering: Ensure that organizations and sites with which they affiliate are trustworthy.
8. Accountability: Provide meaningful opportunity for users to give feedback to the site.
   And
   Monitor their compliance with the eHealth Code of Ethics

Health on the Net Foundation
This organization was founded out of a 1995 international conference on The Use of the Internet and World-Wide Web for Telematics in Healthcare. One of their projects is a Code of Conduct available in 17 languages. Sites can apply for membership and the site includes a checklist for validation. It is primarily concerned with how clearly the source of both data and funding for a site can be determined as well as whether privacy and advertising policies are available.

HON Code of Conduct for medication and health web sites (English version)

Summary: The HONCode includes statements on:

1. Authority
2. Complementarity
3. Confidentiality
4. Attribution
5. Justifiability
6. Transparency of authorship
7. Transparency of sponsorship
8. Honesty in advertising and editorial policy