Ethical Issues in Digital Health

Abstract

With advancement in technology and breakthrough in Internet connectivity, digital health technologies have penetrated all aspects of our lives. Hospital information systems (HIS), electronic health records (EHR), ePrescriptions, eReferrals, personal digital assistant (PDA), wearable devices, telemedicine and telemonitoring are some of the growing number of digital health technologies that help to facilitate the storage, transmission and retrieval of medical data; improve communication between patients and healthcare professionals; monitor biological and physiological parameters, and provide remote health and social care services. However, technology-centred health and social care services also raise a number questions involving what sort of ethical conduct should be expected by developers of the digital health technologies. Issues such as privacy, security, equality, accessibility and data protection are some ethical concerns posed by new technologies in the health and social care sector. One challenge for those involved in the design, development and deployment of digital health technologies and applications will be to determine what constitutes ethics and what codes of ethics to adhere to. There are many frameworks and guidelines established to deal with the impact of digital technologies on our societies. Requirement engineers need to adhere to the relevant codes of ethics to address important engineering ethics-related software requirements.