Outcomes:

After completing this class, students should be able to:

• Analyze and discuss the ethical and social issues raised by various applications of health IT
• Debate the appropriate uses of health IT from an ethical perspective, its risks and benefits to patients, providers and the overall healthcare system
• Discuss how health IT is changing medical decision making and standard of care, and its impact on the physician-patient relationship and society at large
• Explain and compare regulations, standards and best practices in safety, security of sensitive medical documentation, and encryption and electronic destruction of data
• Explain and compare patient safety, health outcomes and national quality initiatives from an ethical perspective and their impact on the health of various populations
• Examine the main elements of various compliance standards, including HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health), NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and debate their impact on the healthcare system
• Research, analyze and present the potential ethical and societal issues of selected emerging healthcare information technologies and applications
• Through health IT selection and implementation case studies, analyze and debate ethical issues from the perspective of various stakeholders