"Should patient information be published on the Internet?":
This question should be
answered with a firm no, by patients and other family members, as well as by
medical and health care professionals, in order to protect them.
Three major areas of concern
should be addressed in this question, namely human rights (and more
specifically, the right to privacy), trust and confidentiality.
Human rights
Each person has basic human
rights and these include the right to personal privacy.
Note the following quotation:
“Privacy is a fundamental human
right recognized in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Convenant on Civil and Political Rights and in many other international and
regional treaties. Privacy underpins human dignity and other key values such as
freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most
important human rights issues of the modern age. The publication of this report
reflects the growing importance, diversity and complexity of this fundamental
right.” (1)
One might ask, is it a
violation of human rights (and more specifically a person’s privacy), when
patient information is posted on the Internet? One must argue that it is.
Does it make a difference who
releases the information?
Should a patient post his or
her own patient information on the Internet, in conjunction with his or her own
family members? Doing so may affect the lives of others and
impinge upon their human rights.
Can a patient or a patient’s
family violate his or her own human rights? Perhaps unknowingly or even
knowingly, this is possible. In turn, this might reflect further, on the human
rights of others.
Should patient information be
posted on the Internet, by medical or other health care professionals?
Medical and health care professionals
do not post any patient information on the Internet, particularly when a
consent in writing, has not been obtained from the patient and/or the
patient’s family.
Trust
“The typical definition of
trust follows the general intuition about trust and contains such elements as: the
willingness of one party (trustor) to be vulnerable to the actions of another
party (trustee); reasonable expectation (confidence) of the trustor that the
trustee will behave in a way beneficial to the trustor; risk of harm to the
trustor if the trustee will not behave accordingly; and the absence of
trustor's enforcement or control over actions performed by the trustee. Trust
can be naturally attributed to relationships between people. It can be
demonstrated that humans have a natural disposition to trust and to judge
trustworthiness that can be traced to the neurobiological structure and
activity of a human brain…” (2)
Patients and their families
establish an element of trust, based upon personal integrity, in their relationship
with others.
Should that trust ever be
broken?
Ideally, this kind of a trust relationship should never be broken through the posting
of patient information on the Internet.
There is the element
of trust established between a doctor and his or her patients, another
trust that should not be broken. To post patient information on the Internet,
without the consent of a patient and his or her family, would be a violation
of that trust.
Confidentiality
Many people are not aware of
what is involved in terms of confidentiality issues and concerns, when patient
information is posted on the Internet.
Consider the following three
definitions of confidentiality:
“…the principle in medical
ethics that the information a patient reveals to a health care provider is
private and has limits on how and when it can be disclosed to a third party.”
(3)
“The ethical principle or legal
right that a physician or other health professional will hold secret all
information relating to a patient, unless the patient gives consent permitting
disclosure.” (4)
“…secrecy relating to
information. All clinical data have a degree of confidentiality, the level
varying with the information and the circumstances.” (5)
Confidentiality, where it concerns
a patient and his or her family members, is something that becomes an
individual or a family matter, but the importance of it should never be
underestimated.
Confidentiality is
always a major concern for all medical and health care professionals. This
is a basic tenet of their training, practice and professional conduct.
Thus, being aware that human
rights, (specifically those of personal privacy), trust and confidentiality are
vital in terms of a person’s medical and health status, patient information
should not be posted on the Internet by a patient, or his or her family
members.
It is even more important when
it comes to medical and health care professionals.
1.
http://gilc.org/privacy/survey/intro.html
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
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