Niam Yaraghi writes about how the recent COVID19 pandemic will need to change how we access health information both before and after it happens. He talks about having more access to citizens health records and tracking people via their cell phones. What will this lead to though?
Thoughts like this, may seem like they have the best intentions; can this lead to other problems in the future?
It may be thought of as okay in other countries to track its citizens whereabouts, but most Americans would agree that they do not want the government or other officials tracking them at any time. This is an invasion of our privacy.
We have the right to be left alone in the United States and anyone entering the IT profession, and in this context, Healthcare IT, need to remember that. What you do can have serious repercussions down the road for future generations of Americans. What may be a request be a healthcare provider, may be a violation of our rights.
We may think it is okay in a pandemic to track where people have been, but does that technology get used then outside of the healthcare setting. It inevitably will get used whether for honest reasons or not. We may say we don’t have anything to worry about if we’re not breaking the law, but are the law biding by the law themselves.
Everyday our rights are challenged by groups of people who want access to our information. As IT professionals, it is ethically part of our duty to protect the rights of Americans to not be traced, tracked, or be monitored if they do not want to be. Contributing to healthcare IT is a fine line to walk, and we want to be part of the healthcare solution, not part of the problem.
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 