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In healthcare we have ethical parameters to follow and must keep patient protected health information private. It is important to be aware of the standards of care, follow evidence-based guidelines, and put the patient first.

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"First, do no harm." The seemingly simple maxim of healthcare proves far more complex when considered in the context of rapidly advancing medical technology, constant budget constraints, and new health threats. At a time when emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are challenging the fundamental notion of what a healthcare provider is, the battle to stop a worldwide pandemic reveals just how difficult ethical issues in healthcare can become when resources are strained.

How do you test the efficacy of a new medical technology without harming patients? Who gets care when the number of patients exceeds a hospital's capacity? What organizations should have access to data that can predict a patient's future health issues? Deliberating such complex practical and moral issues is a constant challenge in healthcare administration, and medical professionals can benefit greatly from training in ethical issues and public policy.

Here are just six of the major ethical issues facing the healthcare industry in 2020. Each issued-based section includes related questions that highlight specific challenges that leaders face when making day-to-day medical decisions and far-reaching policies that affect patient health.

Taking Advantage of Big Data Without Dehumanizing Patients

Medical professionals routinely make difficult decisions, including life-or-death calls, for patients and their families. They rely on extensive scientific training and increasingly sophisticated technology to do so, but their experience, instincts, and knowledge of individual patients also guide them. The increasing role of big data and predictive analytics in medical decision-making raises questions about the ethics of big data in healthcare - specifically whether data-driven decisions risk dehumanizing patients.

The term "big data" refers to the proliferation of digital information in the modern age. Advances in data storage and processing technology have dramatically changed the speed and volume of data analysis capabilities and given rise to predictive analytics. Such analysis promises more accurate diagnostic and therapeutic assessments, but assessments based purely on technology and data, no matter how accurate, lack an essential human touch. Imagine, for example, a decision to end treatment of a loved one's terminal illness based solely on a predictive score produced by an algorithm.

As healthcare data collection technology advances, the industry faces questions about how to handle automatically collected data. Many modern medical devices are capable of reporting an incredible variety of health information, with or without a patient's knowledge. For example, digital pills, also known as smart pills, are pharmaceuticals that contain an ingestible sensor that transmits data after the pill is consumed.

The first digital pill to be approved in the United States was a form of the antipsychotic medication aripiprazole (sold under the trade name Abilify) in 2017. A digital sensor in the pills is activated by the patient's stomach acid and generates an electrical signal that's picked up by a patch on the rib cage and then transmitted to a smartphone app. The technology offers a promising benefit for treating patients who struggle with medication adherence, but critics cite concerns about who should have access to such data and how it can be protected.

The advent of predictive and prescriptive algorithms that can analyze large amounts of data also increases the potential privacy risks associated with stored medical specimens. Medical researchers have long collected and stored blood and tissue samples for future research, but the value of biological samples has increased as advances have been made in genetics, genomics, and biotechnology.

Reusing stored biological samples and data collected from research participants in past studies, as well as samples collected from patients for clinical or diagnostic purposes, raises new issues about the responsibility of healthcare providers to obtain informed consent. A patient may give permission to a healthcare provider or clinical researcher to use a tissue sample for one test, for example, but have no control over its use in future projects.

Ethical Considerations

What is the best way to acquire a patient's informed consent to the use of predictive analytics and other advanced analyses techniques that are based on the patient's private data?

What are the ethical limitations on the use of data that is collected automatically by digital pills and other medical devices and technologies that report sensitive data, sometimes without the patient's knowledge?

Do current policies and regulations related to biospecimens offer adequate privacy protection to patients?

Safeguarding Patient Privacy When Using Population Health Data

The digitization of patient information provides enormous benefits. Electronic health records (EHRs) create a centralized, shareable record of a patient's entire medical history; allow for the automation of healthcare provider workflows; and enable advanced medical assessment tools. Because they hold large amounts of very personal data, they also carry the risk of privacy violation. Protecting patient data is a core responsibility of healthcare providers, and the federal law restricting release of medical information strictly regulates the handling of sensitive patient health information, but the field of population health complicates issues of patient privacy.

Population health is the analysis of health outcomes of large groups of people. The use and effectiveness of population health is increasing in the era of big data, which can be used to find links between diseases and specific environments or socioeconomic groups. Population health can discover widespread health problems or locate segments of the population that have a particularly high occurrence of a disease, for example.

Sharing patient data for secondary purposes, such as population health programs, requires either consent from the patient or anonymization of the data. However, even anonymized data can be misused. Through the practice of de-anonymization, or data re-identification, anonymous data can be compared with publicly available information and matched to an individual. The same information that public health officials use to diagnose, treat, and promote public policies could potentially be used by insurance companies, lenders, marketers, landlords, and employers.

Whether population health information is matched to an individual or applied in aggregate to a population, if it's used for purposes other than promoting health, it has the potential to negatively impact those who supplied the data. An analysis that reveals a high rate of a disease in a given population could be used to focus education and treatment efforts; it could also be used to adjust insurance coverage.

Ethical Considerations

What protections could be put in place to safeguard the de-anonymization of patient data?

How can patients be protected from the negative effects of inherent bias in the algorithms used to analyze public health data?

What level of control should individual patients have over the use of their private health information that becomes part of public health databases?

Ensuring Equal Access to Customized Medicine

Customized medicine refers to the creation of bioidentical limbs and organs to replace injured or missing ones. Biological 3D printers can create limbs and organs customized for a patient's body, and scientists use DNA mapping to "grow" organs that are genetically identical to a patient's own cells, according to Electronic Health Reporter.

The related field of precision medicine, or personalized medicine, also uses genomic data. Precision medicine doesn't describe drugs or medical devices designed specifically for unique patients, but rather the tailoring of treatments to the individual characteristics of patients that have been classified using big data analytics and population health.

Enabled by advances in the understanding of how unique molecular and genetic profiles make an individual susceptible to a particular disease, personalized medicine has applications in risk assessment, prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases.

Customized medicine and other advanced treatments raise issues of income inequality and equal access to healthcare. Advances such as DNA mapping and bioidentical organs hold the potential to lengthen lives dramatically, but treatments that are prohibitively expensive for many or most patients violate the tenets of health equity.

Ethical Considerations

How can healthcare providers ensure equitable access to expensive technologies that not only treat illnesses but also promise to promote longevity and enhance patients' quality of life?

What are the ethics of cost/benefit analyses when human lives are at stake?

What policies could help avoid "genetic discrimination" when medical test results reveal conditions or genetic susceptibilities to specific diseases that weren't the subject of the original tests?

Reconciling Patient Care Decisions with Financial Management

One of the constant ethical challenges facing healthcare administrators is how to make capital allocations that strike a balance between patients' medical needs and fiscal responsibility. Health administrators responsible for healthcare finance management decisions may be put in a position to question, for example, whether a drug needs to be prescribed or an imaging test needs to be done. Even efforts to reduce waste and inappropriate use of resources, critical aspects of responsible fiscal stewardship, can unintentionally impinge on patients' best interests.

The sometimes conflicting responsibilities of supporting optimal patient outcomes and fiscal responsibility can lead to a state of "moral injury." Describing the injury of a person's moral conscience and values resulting from the experience of committing a moral transgression, moral injury results in feelings of shame and guilt. The risk of moral injury can be particularly high in a profit-driven healthcare environment where multiple factors other than patient care influence treatment decisions.

Ethical Considerations

What is the right balance between meeting the medical needs of patients and maintaining fiscal responsibility when making decisions about capital allocation?

How can healthcare administrators address waste and inappropriate use of resources without impinging on the medical decisions made by healthcare providers in the best interests of their patients?

What steps can be taken to address the moral injury that many healthcare providers feel when they're forced by economic considerations to make decisions that go against their moral beliefs and their own expectations?

How can a sense of ethics be instilled in the day-to-day decision-making of healthcare workers in medical departments and in administrative roles?

Implementing Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Ethically

The growing use of AI and robotics also raises issues of healthcare technology ethics. AI refers to the ability of computers to mimic human intelligence and learning. Potential medical applications include analysis of radiologic images. AI used for health-related predictive analysis relies on large, diverse datasets, including EHRs.

However, the ability of AI-powered tools to analyze virtually any dataset, from income data to criminal records, raises concerns about its potential for abuse. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 prohibits employers and health insurers from considering genetic information when making decisions such as hiring and firing or health insurance eligibility. However, the law doesn't apply to nongenetic predictive data.

Robotics are already heavily used in healthcare; robot-assisted surgeries are now commonplace, and robotic prosthetics are advancing rapidly. However, some see a future where robots care for the sick and elderly and robotic enhancements provide patients with superhuman capabilities - applications with more problematic implications.

Robotic health workers offer a potential answer to labor shortages, but their use could dehumanize those they're meant to serve and those they replace. The evolution of robotics in healthcare beyond compensatory measures and into human enhancements raises issues of access and fairness for patients and challenges the definition of a healthcare provider.

Ethical Considerations

What procedures are in place to ensure that AI, robotics, and other advanced technologies are adopted only after they're proven to be effective in meeting the healthcare needs of patients?

How much say should patients have in the use of advanced technologies as part of their medical treatment?

Will predictions about a patient's future health generated by AI systems be made available to insurance companies and other third parties?

What effect will AI-based medical care have on the relationship between patients and their doctors and other healthcare providers?

Devising Ethical Responses to Pandemics and Other Widespread Medical Emergencies

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus provides a grim illustration of ethical issues in pandemic planning and response. When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020, tens of thousands of cases had been confirmed across more than 100 countries. The daily loss of life caused by the virus created an immediate healthcare crisis, prompting a rush to develop a vaccine and the enactment of social distancing measures in countries around the world.

A rapid response during pandemics is crucial, but rushing healthcare efforts can add risk to processes such as drug trials. Deciding how much risk is justified under the circumstances is an ongoing debate. Lacking a vaccine, public health officials have fought the outbreak with social distancing measures that slow the spread of the disease, helping to mitigate outbreak spikes that overwhelm medical facilities and ultimately result in more lives lost.

When determining how strict such measures should be, lawmakers and public health officials must balance the good of communities against individual liberties, a literal life-and-death decision with substantial financial, political, and social ramifications.

When pandemics and other widespread medical emergencies do overwhelm the capacity of medical facilities, even starker ethical questions arise. Healthcare professionals, who are themselves at risk of infection, may be forced to decide which patients should receive treatment or access to lifesaving equipment and treatment when need exceeds capacity.

Ethical Considerations

How should healthcare providers decide who gets treated when the demand for their services outstrips their capacity to supply them to all patients who are in need?

How can healthcare professionals protect against age bias and other forms of discrimination when making these decisions?

In the race to develop vaccines and treatments for deadly diseases, such as COVID-19, how does the healthcare industry ensure that the potential risks to patients and caregivers of these new treatments are properly balanced with the potential rewards they promise?

What role do healthcare providers play in devising and enforcing policies, such as social distancing measures, that restrict the freedoms of their patients?

Combining the Science of Health with the World of Business

Addressing the difficult ethical issues influencing the science and business of healthcare requires leaders with exceptional knowledge and skills. Whether forming technology ethics committees, fostering greater collaboration between healthcare administrators and clinicians, or influencing regulations that protect the use of personal information and predictive data, such leaders support ethical healthcare while balancing medical and financial responsibilities.

With courses in innovation, strategy, and ethical issues and public policy, AdventHealth University Online's Master of Healthcare Administration in Strategy and Innovation and Master of Business Administration (MHA/MBA) Dual Degree program develops strategic thinkers and leaders capable of making significant impacts and initiating positive change. Find out more about how this unique program offered through a partnership between AdventHealth University Online and Stetson University is creating leaders to shape the future of the healthcare industry.
Recommended Readings AdventHealth University and Stetson University Announce Partnership and MHA/MBA Dual-Degree Healthcare Administration: Salary, Careers, and Education MHA vs. MBA: What Are the Differences? Sources: American Medical Association, The Top 10 Ethical Issues Medical Students Should Be Taught BMC Medical Ethics, "Addressing Harm in Moral Case Deliberation: The Views and Experiences of Facilitators" BMC Medical Ethics, "Broad Consent for Biobanks Is Best - Provided It Is Also Deep" BMC Medical Ethics, "Digital Pills: A Scoping Review of the Empirical Literature and Analysis of the Ethical Aspects" BMC Medical Ethics, "Do Patients and Research Subjects Have a Right to Receive Their Genomic Raw Data? An Ethical and Legal Analysis" Deloitte Insights, "Using Predictive Analytics in Health Care" Electronic Health Reporter, "First Do No Harm: The Ethics of Healthcare in 2020" GINAhelp.org, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Healthcare Financial Management Association, "Beyond Compliance: Healthcare CFOs Face Many Situations in Which Ethics Can Guide Decision-making" HealthITAnalytics, "What Are Precision Medicine and Personalized Medicine?" Medical Xpress, "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns" National Center for Biotechnology Information, "Considerations for Ethics Review of Big Data Health Research: A Scoping Review" RoboticsBiz, "8 Ethical Issues in the Use of Robotics in Healthcare" STAT, "Research in the Time of Coronavirus: Keep It Ethical" The Conversation, "The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Forcing Us to Ask Some Very Hard Questions. But Are We Ready for the Answers?" The Hasting Center, "Why Health Care Organizations Need Technology Ethics Committees" The Medical Futurist, "The Most Pressing Issues in Bioethics" World Health Organization, Ethical Issues in Global Health

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6 Ethical Issues in Healthcare in 2020 | AHU Online

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Back to Blog "First, do no harm." The seemingly simple maxim of healthcare proves far more complex when considered in the context of rapidly advancing medical technology, constant budget constraints, and new health threats.

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Designing an Infographic and using them effectively is what I learned this week. Researching and checking the accuracy of the data is important before making the infographic as well as make it visually appealing.

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This week I learned about data and how it can be used to convince others with the numbers. Collecting meaningful data and sharing it with the right software can be very persuasive.

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From the outside looking in, technology careers can almost seem like mystical jobs, where every employee is working on an innovative project that will profoundly shape our future. While this can sometimes be the case, it's important to remember that many technology careers also have practical applications for life and work today.

The field of data analytics is changing business best practices in industries from manufacturing to marketing. "Data analytics technologies and techniques are widely used in commercial industries to enable organizations to make more informed business decisions," says Pushpraj Kumar, business analyst at iFour Technolab.

You know this tech career is important, but you're still not clear on exactly how data analytics shapes the decisions organizations make on a daily basis. We spoke with experts to bring you nine data analytics examples in a variety of industries. Prepare to be surprised as you see how far-reaching a career in data analytics can be!

What is data analytics?

Before we talk about how data analytics is being used, you need to understand what it is. Data analytics may seem complicated, but the idea behind it is actually quite simple: It's the process of sorting through raw data to find meaningful patterns. Data analytics is a powerful decision-making tool that allows business leaders to have all the information they need to move their organization in the right direction.

"There are oceans of useless raw data around us, and it is data analytics that closes the gap by making this data useful," says Kirill Rebrov, cofounder of Demografy. Data analysts use a variety of tools and technologies to gather all sorts of data, like statistics about how much time users spend on a website, demographic information about customers or traffic patterns in a city.

Kumar shares that there are four main types of data analysis:

Descriptive analytics reveal what happened in the past

Diagnostic analytics answer why something happened

Predictive analytics tell what will probably happen in the future

Prescriptive analytics show what actions should be taken to make progress or avoid problems in the future

Once that data has been gathered and organized, it's up to data analysts to interpret it according to the four types of data analytics. "Data can tell many different stories. The analysis lens you use will determine the outcome," says Ryan Prestel, cofounder and CEO of JadeTrack.

9 Exciting examples of data analytics driving change

Businesses in every type of industry can harness the power of data analytics. "There are entire industries most people never think about for a career that leverage analytics skills," says Jen Hood, analytics coach at The Career Force. These are just some of the ways business across various industries are putting data to work.

1. Increasing the quality of medical care

Healthcare facilities across the nation are making use of data analytics to provide higher-quality care and improve patient outcomes. One organization "analyzed data to predict negative health events that seniors could experience from home care," Kumar says. Thanks to their data analysis, they were able to significantly reduce the number of patient hospitalizations and ER visits.

That's just one example. With the implementation of electronic health records systems and an increasingly digitized healthcare system overall, there are worlds of opportunity for data-based innovations and advancements within the medical field.

2. Fighting climate change in local communities

Many local governments are dedicated to fighting the effects of climate change by creating a more sustainable community. It's a goal they couldn't achieve without help from data analytics. "By providing transparency to city-wide sustainability analytics, such as water use, energy use, waste and recycling and emissions, the entire community can do its part to improve energy efficiency and accelerate climate action efforts," Prestel says.

3. Revealing trends for research institutions

Organizations that conduct research using polls or surveys rely on strong data analytics to find patterns in their results. "Data analytics is vital in analyzing surveys, polls, public opinion, etc. For example, it helps segment audiences by different demographic groups and analyze attitudes and trends in each of them, producing more specific, accurate and actionable snapshots of public opinion," Rebrov says.

4. Stopping hackers in their tracks

Cyber security is increasingly important in our digital world. Data analytics-sometimes called security analytics in this field-helps these professionals protect businesses and individuals from hackers. "Data sets are gathered and analyzed in order to create improved detection of threats and create a proactive way of dealing with those threats," says Will Ellis, founder of Privacy Australia and IT security consultant.

5. Serving customers with useful products

Companies that create and sell products drill into their data to learn more about what their customers are looking for. Data analytics gives product developers insights into things like customers' budgets and the features they want to see before making a purchase. The work of data analysts influences everything from the design of next year's trendiest baby stroller to the features of a new luxury sedan.

6. Driving marketing campaigns for businesses

Marketing and data analytics often go hand in hand. Marketing teams refer to data analytics on a regular basis so they can gauge the success of their campaigns and make changes if necessary. "Data analytics is used by marketing teams to run targeted marketing campaigns by segmenting audiences since segmented campaigns produce higher return on investment," Rebrov says.

7. Promoting smart energy usage for utility companies

Many people don't think much about their household's energy usage, but utility companies are taking advantage of data analytics to change that. "For example, energy companies are offering customers up to one-minute real-time energy data," Prestel says. "With the ability to track performance, customers easily understand and manage their energy demand to save time and money."

8. Improving the insurance industry

Insurance companies have always relied heavily on data to make business decisions that serve customers well. Now technology advancements in data analytics are taking the industry even further.

"Data is already being used to help insurers set fairer and more accurate policy premiums, identify fraudulent claims and improve their marketing efforts," Kumar says. He adds that some companies take this further by offering programs like good-driver discounts that allow them to monitor their driving habits and use the data to reduce pricing.

9. Creating manufacturer warranties that make sense

Cars, computers and everything in between come with free or paid warranties. Many people don't realize that manufacturing companies need to carefully analyze the data about their products to offer these warranties. "Most larger manufacturers have warranty departments which rely on analysts to predict what expenses are going to be," Hood says.

Dig into the data

These data analytics examples have shown you how much of an impact this tech career can have on all types of organizations. You're intrigued by the possibilities of working in data analytics, but you still need to learn more about daily work in this career.

Dig into even more data about this job title with our article, " What Does a Data Analyst Do? Exploring the Day-to-Day of This Tech Career."

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Data Analytics Examples: 9 Ways Businesses Are Channeling the Power of Data

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From the outside looking in, technology careers can almost seem like mystical jobs, where every employee is working on an innovative project that will profoundly shape our future. While this can sometimes be the case, it's important to remember that many technology careers also have practical applications for life and work today.

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Two-step authentication was explained this week as necessary for better security. I just heard someone say this week that Apple Air-pods could be used to get data in my phone when I am out and I feel this sense of awareness of how important personal information and patient information needs to be protected.

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This week I learned that with health information technology: Safety is a concern, that EHR's use can lead to medical errors. There are several organizations that look into this and provide guidelines to have safer health IT.

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This week in informatics was interesting about the health apps and games to improve health and assist with research. It is fascinating that using this popular technology can accomplish teaching health topics, improving treatment compliance and revolutionizing how research data is collected.

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Video Game Technology Helps Measure Movement

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This week I learned that Telehealth is booming due to the pandemic. It is important to know what is suitable for a telehealth appointment and what is not. The legal guidelines and technical requirements need to be investigated for successful visits, as well as good communication skills.

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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.
Spotlight on ONC Telehealth Resources and Reports
Telehealth applications include:

Live (synchronous) videoconferencing: a two-way audiovisual link between a patient and a care provider

Store-and-forward (asynchronous) videoconferencing: transmission of a recorded health history to a health practitioner, usually a specialist.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM): the use of connected electronic tools to record personal health and medical data in one location for review by a provider in another location, usually at a different time.

Mobile health (mHealth): health care and public health information provided through mobile devices. The information may include general educational information, targeted texts, and notifications about disease outbreaks.

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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.

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This week I learned that individual states have programs to encourage health information exchange, for example, Maryland started a program called CRISP. Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients. The individual patient offices and hospital systems can participate by using a compliant electronic health record, and the program helps track health trends, and allows health information exchange among disparate health systems.

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Health Information Exchange | HealthIT.gov

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The demand for electronic health information exchange among care professionals is growing along with nationwide efforts to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care delivery. Meaningful use requirements, new payment approaches that stress care coordination, and federal financial inc…

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I realize EHR's are better for everyone, it just seems like they do require a lot of typing. 🐱‍💻

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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Electronic Health Records: What's in it for Everyone?

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Having access to patient records helps with patient education, safety, compliance, understanding, and tracking of health visits.

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A Patient's Journey: Meaningful Use Stage 3 and MIPS

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Health care is shifting focus from optional incentive program to mandatory quality patient care process through the use of certified EHR systems. Let's take a look at the future of patient care.

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Transforming Data, Information, Knowledge, & Wisdom

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Transforming Data, Information, Knowledge, & Wisdom

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This is an Ad of how GE is helping make healthcare data meaningful. It is amazing how many ways healthcare data can be used to make informed care.

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Carestation Insights: Advanced analytic platform helping make data driven decisions | GE Healthcare

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Getting devices like these to transmit and use health information is a step in healthcare interoperability

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The Body Map Of Health Trackers_ Infographic - The Medical Futurist

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The first class was interesting. I learned about informatics for healthcare. Meeting everyone was fun, the class has people who live all over the U.S., so we should have some interesting conversations.

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I really wasn't aware of this! I find it exciting that we can have access to our health records, and that there is so much to learn about the evolving health informatics field.

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This guidance remains in effect only to the extent that it is consistent with the court's order in Ciox Health, LLC v. Azar, No. 18-cv-0040 (D.D.C. January 23, 2020), which may be found at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv0040-51. More information about the order is available at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/court-order-right-of-access/index.html. Any provision within this guidance that has been vacated by the Ciox Health decision is rescinded.
The Privacy Rule gives you, with few exceptions, the right to inspect, review, and receive a copy of your medical records and billing records that are held by health plans and health care providers covered by the Privacy Rule.

Access

Only you or your personal representative has the right to access your records.

A health care provider or health plan may send copies of your records to another provider or health plan only as needed for treatment or payment or with your permission.

The Privacy Rule does not require the health care provider or health plan to share information with other providers or plans.

HIPAA gives you important rights to access your medical record and to keep your information private.

Charges

A provider cannot deny you a copy of your records because you have not paid for the services you have received.

However, a provider may charge for the reasonable costs for copying and mailing the records. The provider cannot charge you a fee for searching for or retrieving your records.

Provider's Psychotherapy Notes

You do not have the right to access a provider's psychotherapy notes.

Psychotherapy notes are notes that a mental health professional takes during a conversation with a patient. They are kept separate from the patient's medical and billing records. HIPAA also does not allow the provider to make most disclosures about psychotherapy notes about you without your authorization.

Corrections

If you think the information in your medical or billing record is incorrect, you can request a change, or amendment, to your record. The health care provider or health plan must respond to your request. If it created the information, it must amend inaccurate or incomplete information.

If the provider or plan does not agree to your request, you have the right to submit a statement of disagreement that the provider or plan must add to your record.

See 45 C.F.R. §§ 164.508, 164.524 and 164.526, and OCR's Frequently Asked Questions.

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This guidance remains in effect only to the extent that it is consistent with the court's order in Ciox Health, LLC v. Azar, No. 18-cv-0040 (D.D.C. January 23, 2020), which may be found at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv0040-51 . More information about the order is available at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/court-order-right-of-access/index.html .