Ethics and Public Health Data
Order Instructions:
Ethics and Public Health Data
Public health officials have an obligation to protect both the individual and the “greater good” of the community. This dual mandate can produce situations in which ethically sound decision making is ambiguous. For instance, during the monitoring of many diseases and chronic illnesses, data are shared among multiple agencies for the sake of obtaining a more inclusive data set. Individuals may feel that their privacy is being encroached upon when their personal information is shared among these agencies. As our capacity to access and link data from various disparate sources is enhanced, the security of one’s personal and identifying information is diminished. Indeed, there are frequent reports in the news of data security breaches with potentially devastating consequences for consumers and/or patients.
post a brief explanation of what you consider to be the ethical considerations inherent in sharing health data. Then, state your position on whether it is more important, from an ethical standpoint, to protect an individual’s identity or protect the community’s health. Justify your response. Include disease surveillance and informatics examples.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Public health is an organized discipline whose mandate is to protect both individuals and the greater community (Coughlin & American Public Health Association, 2009). However, to attain its mandate, public health officials are often faced with an ethical dilemma in decisions making. For instance, when monitoring diseases and chronic illnesses, several health agencies must share information regarding the health of individuals so as to obtain relevant data. This compromises the privacy of individual’s information, which is considered unethical from the perspective of medicine and nursing. There are, indeed, several cases in the news of data security breaches that have devastating effects for patients or consumers. Personal protection of individuals’ health is an ethical consideration that has long been recognized. It aims at protecting individuals’ interests and rights. Therefore, sharing of individuals’ health data between agencies is a violation of individuals’ privacy. This raises a question on whether to protect one’s individual health information or protect the society. This question raises an ambiguity in decision making process. Looking at the issue keenly, it is agreeable that protecting the society from diseases is far much beneficial that protecting individual’s health information.
Privacy in nursing is concerned with the collection, use, and storage of personal information. It is defined using the terms confidentiality and security. Confidentiality safeguards data gathered in an intimate relationship. It involves keeping information from that relationship private. For instance, it prevents a physician from disclosing information shared to him or her in the context of physician patient relationship. Disclosure of such information is considered a breach of privacy. On the other hand, security is defined as the technical and procedural measures put in place to prevent unauthorized access to individual’s health data. It is concerned in keeping the data of patients from unauthorized use (Coughlin & American Public Health Association, 2009).
In the situation of public health, there are many cases where confidentiality is breached especially in monitoring of disease outbreaks. In such cases, many agencies share the information of various patients with intent of safeguarding the public from diseases. This is seen regarded as a violation of privacy because health information of a person should only be viewed by his or her doctor and his or her data kept safe from unauthorized access. Further, there are cases of security breach when sharing information, that is, unauthorized access is likely to occur through hacking or other malicious means. In other words, sharing of data between agencies creates an easy avenue for unauthorized access.
Public health officials claim that they do not intend to use the information for malicious use; rather, it is for public safety. They need the information in order to monitor cases of disease outbreaks, which is for community good. It may be unethical to access private information, but the benefits are much more than an individual’s violation of privacy. For instance, if one’s information is shared to the public health, it may help the public officers to determine and monitor diseases so that they can warn the public against an occurrence of a disease. They also use the information to create awareness on how individuals can protect themselves from certain diseases.
As such, breach of privacy for the common good is beneficial and should be pursued at the expense of the ethical ramifications. In any case, the information is accessed by public health officials who have authority to access personal information. They do not distribute the information to other unwarranted sources; instead, they use it among themselves. Even though it may create avenue for unauthorized access, the community good or the welfare of the community should come first as opposed to the privacy of individuals. It should be noted that public officials are only concerned in promoting the welfare of all including those whose data has been shared (Coughlin & American Public Health Association, 2009)
References
Coughlin, S. S., & American Public Health Association. (2009). Ethics in epidemiology and public health practice: Collected works. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/book/10.2105/9780875531939
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