Epidemiology
Digital epidemiology has usefully provided strategies that use information technology to detect infectious diseases. However, as digital epidemiology is becoming more prevalent, there are some ethical considerations of using big data in public health surveillance. These considerations involve the safety, quality, and privacy of the data.
Large data exchanges between clinicians, organizations, patients, and federal agencies have potential safety conse4quences because they are prone to threats such as hackers. Hackers threaten the wealth of big digital data in health care by manipulating the data for profits. Most of the hacked medical data is sold on the darknet, given it contains the patient’s full name, history, address, social security number, and financial information. These kinds of information are enough for hackers to set up a line of credit under a patient’s identity.
Digital epidemiology undermines the quality of health data. In most cases, patients where patients perceive the use of big data in public health surveillance as a possible tool that may turn their medical information public. Therefore, they may become hesitant to disclose some of the sensitive issues or provide false information. When care is provided based on such, it might compromise the overall quality of attention due to misdiagnosis.
With the use of big data in public health surveillance, the patient’s right to decide how, when, and to what their health information may be accessed is limited. Patient privacy maintains the autonomy and confidentiality of the patient and only shares patient information with those who need to improve care (Denecke, 2017). However, in most cases, digital epidemiology does not obtain the patients’ informed consent when using their medical information, which could lead to further privacy breaches against the patient.
Reference
Denecke, K. (2017). An ethical assessment model for digital disease detection technologies. Life Sciences, Society and Policy, 13(1).doi: 10.1186/s40504-017-0062-x