Ethical utilization of electronic health records must be analyzed and addressed

In accordance to a paper authored by the ACP and released in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, EHRs (Electronic health records) should serve the high-quality patient-centered care, help and increase clinical reason, and maintain privacy and confidentiality.

Lois Snyder Sulmasy, JD, of the ACP, and co-workers wrote, “Electronic health records (EHRs) give benefits for sufferers, physicians and clinical teams, but also raise ethical queries.” 
They added, “EHR development [has] concentrated not on capturing the sufferer’s story and physician’s thought procedures and care plans, but on billing, administrative and regulatory elements”. The medical profession is responsible for recognizing and dealing this incongruity, in accordance to Sulmasy and colleagues.
The following 3 principles have been recognized by ACP for EHR use:

• Electronic health record and computer use should simplify patient care and support physician ethical duties and the patient-physician relationship;
• Electronic health record use should make better clinical reasoning and the development of cognitive and diagnostic skills. Features like copy-and-paste should be utilized carefully, meet ethical needs of a precise and complete medical record and be reflective of patient visits; and
• Electronic health record use must be kept confidential and private. While care can be increased by the retrieval, exchange and remote access of patient information, electronic health records can also lead to unauthorized disclosure and use of protected health information.

Nitin S. Damle, MD, MS, MACP, president of ACP, stated in a related press release, “The medical profession must continually evaluate EHRs and other technological advances to make sure that they sustain the patient-physician relationship, reduce time taken away from straight patient care, help in clinical reasoning and enhance diagnostic skills, and secure patient privacy and confidentiality”.