Data Sharing and Protection of Private Patient Information

The Ethical and Legal Dilemmas Resulting from Data Sharing and Protection of Private Patient Information
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Due Date
Abstract
In this 21s century ear, healthcare organizations are grappling with how best to enhance care delivery and ensure patient data safety. Therefore, the debate about data sharing and protection when utilizing data analytics in the healthcare sector is vital. The paper shares some of the benefits of data analytics in a health care setting as well as notable ethical and legal concerns that arise while private patient information. Patients’ data privacy and protection are steadily losing bearing. However, health care stakeholders are busy focusing on ideal approaches to mediating the problems. For example, there is a need to emphasize the use of set data guidelines such as the United Nations (UN), Global Protection Privacy, Data Protection Principles and the European Union’s (EU), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to achieve patients’ data safety. Besides, healthcare institutions are encouraged to ensure systems are safeguarded in their entirety while utilizing intrusion software, use of firewalls, as well as furthering patient-physician collaboration when analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. The paper recommends that data security be achieved by ensuring private companies developing healthcare innovations do it having the end-user and the community concerns in mind.
Keywords: Data collection, consent, data dissemination, data sharing, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The Ethical and Legal Dilemmas Resulting from Data Sharing and Protection of Private Patient Information
The ubiquitous deployment of digital technology is a game-changer of how operations and services are carried out in the healthcare setting. While these technologies are a breakthrough of healthcare professionals having an easy time identifying the proper medical intervention to specific patients, raising ethical and legal concerns about data sharing and the protection of private information is debatable. The ethical and legal issues raised span beyond privacy and confidentiality and go as far as matters related to decision making. This paper argues that data analytics is critical because it improves healthcare quality and access to healthcare. However, to achieve efficiency, there is a need to pursue incremental reforms that balance the interests of healthcare professionals and patients.
Potential Benefits and Reasons to Share Data
Predictive analytics in the healthcare setting is becoming more relevant because of the numerous benefits it poses. Data analytics has led to the emergence of real-time electronic data sets. Mitchel & Kan (2018) opine that the advent of electronic health records (EHR) has made it easier to share information in the health care field. Using electronic health records to share data is beneficial as it makes patient data centralized, streamlining retrieving and updating the stored information. Conversely, centralized data translates to minimize errors. Sharing data in a healthcare setting is also pivotal as it enhances accountability, especially when patients are receiving treatment (Banerjee, Hemphill, & Longstreet, 2018). For example, the shared information can show patients’ past health conditions and medications prescribed, offering a better perspective of dealing with the current patient’s health condition.
Noteworthy, information sharing is lauded as it bridges the barrier of limited equitable access. This problem is attributable primarily to the inflexibility of the healthcare system. One example of how sharing information in this context is beneficial is through patient care satisfaction being achieved through technologies such as telemedicine. According to Shat et al. (2018), this concept allows patients to receive quality clinical care from a distance bearing a lot of relevance in this Covid-19 pandemic era where physical visits to the hospitals are limited. Imperatively sharing information is attributable to seamless patients’ access to social support systems. Patients with common problems can communicate and share constructive ideas about their problems and sharing a word of encouragement, and having the possibility of being paired up with physicians who can offer necessary clinical assistance.
Privacy and Confidentiality
As the healthcare sector is increasingly adopting digital initiatives, patient data safety is increasingly becoming more critical. The proliferation of digital advancements has made it easy to collect data in different ways. Today, the majority of data can be collected in social media and specific healthcare facilities. However, one sure thing is that patients’ data privacy and protection are steadily losing bearing. The majority of healthcare facilities deliberately or unknowingly breach set policies that guide patients’ data, such as the United Nations (UN), Global Protection Privacy, Data Protection Principles and the European Union’s (EU), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). MacPherson and Pham’s (2020) study that reviewed 22 countries that adopted data security and data protection guidelines revealed that 6 out of the 22 countries adhered to the data policies and guidelines; six countries enforced privacy and security guidelines. Conversely, the report found that most countries lacked protocols responsible for ensuring health devices are properly regulated and certified. These daunting revelations reveal how patients’ data can easily be misused when data analytics is used in a healthcare setting. A typical patient data breach can sell patients’ data to third parties, especially when the information is retrieved and disseminated on social media sites. From a patient’s confidentiality standpoint, patients are more likely to experience personal information leakage, especially data about patients’ illness and legal names and family members.
Security Breaches
Security breaches are a threat to a patient, especially when confidential information is leaked without their consent. Ozair et al., (2015) study that examined data breaches at Howard University Hospital reveals that data insecurity can adversely impact a large group of people. Its ramifications are dire legally. For example, one of the medical technicians at Howard University Hospital faced a lawsuit for undermining Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (Ozair et al., 2015). The charge sheet comprises of illegally stealing Medicare numbers and patients’ personal details to commercialize the data. Legally, a data breach could earn one sentence in court or even being fined. Worse, one can be fined as well as being imprisoned. Keeping records secure is a challenge that is costing many hospitals. The problem cuts across from the hospital’s top management to healthcare professionals. For instance, top management fails to institute security measures such as firewalls, and emphasis on antivirus software, and lack of intrusion software. Imperatively, some healthcare facilities are ignorant of using mobile devices to actualize healthcare facilities’ processes. Hospital top management and hea...