Ethical and Legal Issues Related to the Use of Computer Programs in Clinical Medicine

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-102-4-529

Ethical and Legal Issues Related to the Use of Computer Programs in Clinical Medicine

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Abstract

As computer programs are used with increasing frequency in the clinical setting, ethicists, lawyers, computer scientists, clinicians, and patients must confront a group of problems: In what situations is it appropriate to use a medical computer program? Who should use these programs and how should they be used? What is the legal status of a computer program that provides medical advice? Can a proper balance be achieved between confidentiality of patient information and shared access to records by health care personnel? How can regulatory agencies, physicians, and patients determine if a program is safe for human use? Will programs be able to communicate with users well enough to prevent clinically harmful misunderstandings? Because few if any definitive answers are yet available, these questions remain the subject of much discussion.

Article and Author Information

▸From the Decision Systems Laboratory, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine; Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts and Science; and Law and Psychiatry Program, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, and School of Law; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Grant support: by grants R01-LM-03710 from the National Library of Medicine and R24-RR-01101 from the Division of Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health (Dr. Miller); the National Science Foundation's EVIST program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation (Dr. Schaffner); and Clinical Research Center Grant MH-30915 from the National Institute of Mental Health and a University of Pittsburgh School of Law research stipend (Prof. Meisel).
▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Randolph A. Miller, M.D.; 1360 Scaife Hall, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Pittsburgh, PA 15261.