HI 5305 Legal and Ethical Aspects in Health Informatics

Health Informatics involves rapidly changing technology, which impacts the way in which legal and ethical considerations are understood in our culture. This course will examine the relationships between law and ethics. Particular considerations will be given to the concepts of privacy, autonomy, responsibility and decision-making. These concepts will be discussed from both legal and ethical perspectives. The impact of current and future technology will be discussed as it relates to these concepts and the impact on Health Informatics.

Course Goals

• Learn basic ethical and legal frameworks and concepts of particular import to Informatics.
• Acquire the ability to apply legal and ethical concepts to issues in Health Informatics domains.
• Reach a broad understanding of cyberspace citizenship issues and the extension of democratic concepts and institutions to cyberspace.
• Learn basic computer security and authentication technology concepts.
• Learn to apply frameworks for developing and implementing authentication, security and confidentiality polices in healthcare settings.
• Explore research opportunities at the intersection of law, informatics and  bioethics.

Topics

• Introduction to Ethics   
• Computing and Medicine   
• Application of Moral and Ethical Concepts to Particular Health Informatics   
• Issues of the Cybercitizen
  
• PGP and the Public Key
• Infrastructure
• CHI Database Use and Concerns
• Provider database use and concerns
• Confidentiality and Privacy of Personal Data
• Monitoring Changing Laws, Regulations, and Standards
• Developing Policies, Procedures, and Practices for Information Security
• Enhancing Patient Understanding of Information
• Institutionalizing Security Efforts
• Responsibility for Information Security

Prerequisites

Consent of the instructor, highspeed internet access, personal computer