MMI 407 - Legal, Social and Ethical Issues in Informatics
'A Gift of Fire' is perhaps an insufficient analogy for the creation of the internet. It offers lightning fast spread of information and once released, the damage may be fatal. As Ben Franklin might tell you, luck with your first attempt may be misleading. Most of mankind's conflict experience has involved direct contact and relatively slow moving processes. We now have the opportunity to face a truly anonymous foe who might strike from anywhere. Zap. There are no precedents for many of the interactions that are occurring.
This course offered the opportunity to explore the range of permissible uses and disclosures allowed by HIPAA and subsequently argue rigorously for or against policies regarding the appropriate handling of health care data. This helped us to understand the regulations and legal principles and assess the drivers of change within this framework. These concepts were extended into the quasi-governmental arena of accreditation, especially regarding medical informatics. With this background we were then able to explore and formulate a plan to safeguard IP assets and the key components of an effective compliance plan. This critical thinking exercise also allowed us to share our own thoughts as leaders in the field regarding future legal and ethical regulation of medical informatics in the U.S. social landscape. It was both fun and informative to be allowed to offer such a forward thinking model to resolve or mitigate legal and regulatory issues in the health care system.
Exploring the consequences of the systems we create requires the ability to conceptualize all the outcomes that may exist. Not only do we need to have the ability to 'step back' from the processes we are building and implementing to have a sense of their progress, but also to look for pitfalls and unintended consequences that may develop. Having knowledge of the extant case and legislative law is important, but no more so than a balances perspective of the expected outcomes. It may be optimal to focus on the best-case for marketing, but the worst-case for liability analysis. Issue spotting exercises are a great opportunity to practice liability protection.
I am not one to dwell on the risk of liability as a reason to avoid doing something, but rather to learn how to mitigate or manage the risk. The Joint Commission (JC) for example, sets forth recommendations for organizations to follow. They do so with the expectation that most will follow these directly. But they specifically state that they are looking for a well developed and thought out plan, implemented consistently and monitored. One of my goals is to promote that concept within the organizations I work for. We don't need to conform, but we need to know what we are doing.
Syllabus Paper Presentation Criticism Paper MMI Overview Coursework Projects Home
Issue Spotting Individual Research Paper
* Amazon.com: A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet (3rd Edition) (9780136008484): Sara Baase: Books http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Fire-Ethical-Computing-Internet/dp/0136008488/ref=dp_ob_image_bk Screen clipping taken: 10/12/2011, 02:56 AM
This course offered the opportunity to explore the range of permissible uses and disclosures allowed by HIPAA and subsequently argue rigorously for or against policies regarding the appropriate handling of health care data. This helped us to understand the regulations and legal principles and assess the drivers of change within this framework. These concepts were extended into the quasi-governmental arena of accreditation, especially regarding medical informatics. With this background we were then able to explore and formulate a plan to safeguard IP assets and the key components of an effective compliance plan. This critical thinking exercise also allowed us to share our own thoughts as leaders in the field regarding future legal and ethical regulation of medical informatics in the U.S. social landscape. It was both fun and informative to be allowed to offer such a forward thinking model to resolve or mitigate legal and regulatory issues in the health care system.
Exploring the consequences of the systems we create requires the ability to conceptualize all the outcomes that may exist. Not only do we need to have the ability to 'step back' from the processes we are building and implementing to have a sense of their progress, but also to look for pitfalls and unintended consequences that may develop. Having knowledge of the extant case and legislative law is important, but no more so than a balances perspective of the expected outcomes. It may be optimal to focus on the best-case for marketing, but the worst-case for liability analysis. Issue spotting exercises are a great opportunity to practice liability protection.
I am not one to dwell on the risk of liability as a reason to avoid doing something, but rather to learn how to mitigate or manage the risk. The Joint Commission (JC) for example, sets forth recommendations for organizations to follow. They do so with the expectation that most will follow these directly. But they specifically state that they are looking for a well developed and thought out plan, implemented consistently and monitored. One of my goals is to promote that concept within the organizations I work for. We don't need to conform, but we need to know what we are doing.
Syllabus Paper Presentation Criticism Paper MMI Overview Coursework Projects Home
Issue Spotting Individual Research Paper
* Amazon.com: A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet (3rd Edition) (9780136008484): Sara Baase: Books http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Fire-Ethical-Computing-Internet/dp/0136008488/ref=dp_ob_image_bk Screen clipping taken: 10/12/2011, 02:56 AM