Healthcare Informatics - Essay Example

Healthcare Informatics Number October 10, Faculty Healthcare Informatics Introduction The number of people turning to health social networking sites including the patients and the medical practitioners is increasing day by day (Adibi, 2014). On these health social networking sites such as PatientsLikeMe, Sermo, CarePages.com, CareTogether.com and Facebook among many others, people openly share their health information with little knowledge of its implications (Li, 2015). There are often discussions of diseases that someone may be suffering from, the possible treatments and may be the best physician that others on the site have had experience with (Li, 2013). In so doing, it is apparent that personal health care data is potentially compromised. A loophole for privacy risks is created. The repository to which the patients post their personal health information may keep it for a lifetime (Adibi, 2014). Serious privacy risks that patients are exposed to include the risk of losing job opportunities, the risk for insurance companies, and lack of the ability to control who views such information. One critical question that one should reflect on is whether the patients are aware of the privacy risks involved in exposing their personal health data? (Chbeir & Al Bouna, 2013). Or whether there are appropriate policies for these social sites that guarantee the safety of the information to avoid health data security breaches that may turn costly on the part of the information owners? Awareness and education of the users are of paramount importance in mitigating the privacy risks. Li (2013) observes that there policy implications of using the health social networking sites and the stakeholders and the policy makers should elaborate them to protect the privacy of online health data. The health social networking sites are left to decide what information will be kept private and what will be shared. If there existed knowledge about the privacy settings, patients would be able to restrict the health data they want to keep secret. Healthcare Informatics After reading the work by Li (2013), I strongly support the option of privacy by education for mitigating the privacy risks surrounding the health data shared on the social networking sites. It should be noted that the health data collected from the social sites attracted unlimited commercial interests that can be used as business opportunities for medical research companies and partners. The privacy that provides surety of the protection in any social network one that directly involves the user. In the case of the health social networking sites as described by Li, the owners of the social sites, their partners and the practitioners are not to trust. The vulnerability of the health data is high given that there is a very low level of awareness among the users of the existence of the privacy policies that can help minimize the privacy risks (Li, 2013). Therefore, the very first concern in mitigating the potential likelihood of privacy breaches should start with the amelioration of the visible debilities that include lack of proper education and awareness among the users. Considering the nature of the health social networking sites and the uses to which the collected data is subjected, the patients and other must be actively involved in securing their privacy. Li (2015) observes that regulation by education means prompting the users know what health information is private, why it is private, and how they should go about keeping it private. The privacy settings of the various health websites are fundamentally important in ensuring the privacy of the personal health data. However, only a small section of the users understands their existence, their importance and some cannot use such settings due to lack of knowledge about the processes (Li, 2013). It is important that we appreciate that the current status of the health social networking sites can distinguish what information should be kept personal, what should be shared publicly and what data is limited to some selected group individuals. Nonetheless, such a state only exists, its implementation through educating the users is what remains questionable. Regulation by education can thus make the users understand the available privacy settings on the sites and how to apply them for maximum protection of personal data. According to Yingjiu (2011), equipping the users with the necessary technical skills and knowledge to protect their personal health data and know why they should or should not expose to particular groups or individuals is of great essence. When one knows and is prompted by the settings to keep the personal identification, the PII and some other personal data private, they would not relent to do it. It is important that in the user takes the responsibility of enhancing the security of their personal health data rather than leaving it in the hands of persons that may use the information maliciously. The privacy by design contains some basic requirements that health social network sites should fulfil toward guaranteeing the safety and privacy of the personal health data of the users. Such include the building of the data privacy and protection by design into the sharing platforms (Li, 2013). However, the weaknesses of the privacy by design primarily emanate from the exclusion that it does by stating that it should not involve the users. As aforementioned, the nature of the data and the uses to which such data can be subjected with commercial benefits do not guarantee the exclusion of the users in the privacy policy. Additionally, the option involves the sharing of data both within and beyond the social sites. The privacy by design option primarily depends on technology. It should be noted that the same technology is behind the current problems of cyber security and data breaching. Therefore, bestowing absolute trust that data could be protected through privacy by design could be injurious to the users (Chbeir & Al Bouna, 2013). Privacy by design is only required as an additional measure to privacy policies after the users have been educated on how to account for their privacy. The option of privacy by regulation is by itself a significant risk to the personal health data by the users. It would be unethical that a privacy policy could seek consent to subject the personal health data into non-medical use (Li, 2013). That would mean using the personal health data for commercial and other salutary purposes that put the privacy of the persons involved in significant risks. The majority of users of the health social networking sites are unaware of the potential privacy risks they are subjected to by sharing private data publicly. Adibi (2014) explains that the implications of this situation are that when requested to have their data used for non-medical purposes, the patients may not decline since they do not understand its adverse consequences. The inclusion of the requirement that personal data can be subjected to non-medical use is self-defeating. It contradicts the very essence of the establishment and existence of the health social networking sites that is primary to improve the health care by appealing to the community perspective. Chbeir & Al Bouna, (2013) note that having data used for such purposes even with the consent of the owners would amount to exploitation. Such an option creates a loophole that can be used to use personal data for proprietary purposes even without the consent of the owners. The privacy option of using regulation merely involves the users in the issuing of consent beyond which they have no control of their personal data which is left in the hands of legislators who in this particular case are not to trust. Conclusion The mitigation of the inherent threats and risks associated with the potentially vulnerable health information contained in the health social networking sites require the involvement of the users at every stage. There is a lack of awareness and technical skills among the users on the privacy settings. Educating the users on privacy requirements and how to go about it should form the preliminary efforts that seek to protect personal health data from the inherent privacy risks. References Adibi, S. (2014). MHealth multidisciplinary verticals. CRC Press. Chbeir, R., & Al Bouna, B. (2013). Security and privacy preserving in social networks. New York: Springer. Li, J. (2013). Privacy policies for health social networking sites. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, (20), 704-707. Li, J. (2015). A Privacy Preservation Model for Health-Related Social Networking Sites. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(7), 1-23. Yingjiu, L. (2011). Data and Applications Security and Privacy: 25th Annual IFIP WG. Journal of Medical Research, 1-17. Read More