Ethical requirements for cross-sectoral electronic communication in healthcare. Development of central questions based on a literature review [Ethische Anforderungen an elektronische transsektorale Kommunikation im Gesundheitswesen. Formulierung zentraler Fragestellungen auf Basis eines Literaturreviews]

Abstract

Electronic communication across healthcare settings is one of the essential pillars of eHealth. It is a human activity, which is supposed to improve care for individuals and communities. Ethics evaluates such human activities regarding their impact and the values and norms that form its basis. Thereby, the impact both on individuals and communities is regarded. In health- and social care, the principles of autonomy, damage prevention, welfare, and justice are regarded as standards. Thus, the questions to be addressed to electronic communication across settings from an ethical point of view have to be defined, in order to examine if it meets ethical demands. At first, statements referring to health information and technology in the context of ethics were extracted from publications found in a systematic literature analysis, and then checked, for which potential questions they offered answers. The resulting statements were phrased as questions relating to the five principles mentioned above. Seven questions could be derived from the statements of the literature, and could be associated to the ethical principles. Based on these results, further research can investigate, whether technical applications for cross-sectorial electronic communication is able to improve the welfare of individuals as well as that of communities, from which patients, professionals and the whole healthcare system could profit. © 2018 Schulte et al. Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License