ETHICAL ISSUES RELATED TO

TECHNOLOGY AND DELIVERY OF

HEALTH CARE
A. DATA PROTECTION AND
SECURITY
Data Protection is the act of protecting
information, both sensitive and personal
sensitive to unauthorized access and use. It
allows employees to safely share shared
logical and files physical address spaces. In
terms of logical address spaces, for
example, if a directory of data files must be
shared by several users, protection
measures such as digital signatures and
encryption can aid in the process of safe
sharing.
Security is typically defined by
three main attributes: availability,
integrity and confidentiality

Availability relates to the

prevention of unauthorized
actors withholding
information, for as during a
ransom ware assault. Meanwhile,
confidentiality and integrity are
concerned with information
staying private, undamaged, and
undamaged by malevolent
actors.
 Healthcare services rely heavily on the open exchange of
information among all participants – whether the
customer, the healthcare professional, or the health
institution. Clients are more likely to offer complete and
accurate data when they are convinced that their
information is safe and secure in the hands of their
healthcare practitioner.

IMPLICATIONS A health organization that values data privacy is one that

cares about its patients. The majority of the data you

TO process as a healthcare professional is classified as

sensitive personal information. Data privacy safeguards

PRACTICE
guarantee that your client’s information is safe and
secure.

It ensures that their data is secure at all times and is not

vulnerable to risks and vulnerabilities such as unlawful
access, processing, sharing, and disclosure.
 DATA PRIVACY ACT
(NATIONAL PRIVACY COMMISSION, 2021)
Republic Act No. 10173
is also known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA). It (1) protects the privacy of
individuals while ensuring free flow of information to promote innovation and
growth; (2) regulates the collection, recording, organization, storage, updating or
modification, retrieval, consultation, use, consolidation, blocking, erasure or
destruction of personal data; and (3) ensures that the Philippines complies with
international standards set for data protection through National Privacy
Commission.

National Privacy Commission (NPC)

is the country’s privacy watchdog; an independent body mandated to administer
and implement the DPA, and to monitor and ensure compliance of the country with
international standards set for data protection
WHO ARE COVERED BY
THE DPA?

The DPA applies to the processing of all

types of personal information and to any
natural or juridical person involved in
personal information processing, including
personal information controllers and
processors who, while not located or
established in the Philippines, use
equipment located in the Philippines, or
those who maintain an office, branch, or
agency in the Philippines subject to the
immediately following paragraph: Provided,
That the requirements of Section 5
are complied with.
WHAT IS A PRIVACY
NOTICE??

A privacy notice is a statement made to a

data subject that describes how the
organization collects, uses, retains and
discloses personal information. It is
sometimes referred to as a privacy
statement, a fair processing statement, or
privacy policy.
WHAT IS A PRIVACY IMPACT
ASSESSMENT (PIAA)?
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a
process undertaken and used to evaluate
and manage impacts on privacy of a
particular program, project, process,
measure, system or technology product of a
PIC or PIP. It takes into account the nature
of the personal data to be protected, the
personal data flow, the risks to privacy and
security posed by the processing, current
data privacy best practices, the cost of
security implementation, and, where
applicable, the size of the organization, its
resources, and the complexity of its
operations.
WHAT IS A PRIVACY
MANAGEMENT PROGRAM?

Privacy Management Program (PMP) refers

to a process intended to embed privacy
and data protection in the strategic
framework and daily operations of a PIC or
PIP, maintained through organizational
commitment and oversight of
coordinated projects and activities.
DATA PROCESSING
GUIDELINES
Under the DPA, the consent of the data
subject is defined as any freely given,
specific, informed indication of will,
whereby the data subject agrees to the
collection and processing of personal
information about and/or relating to him or
her. Note that consent is just one of many
other lawful criteria for processing of
personal information (Section 12, DPA) and
sensitive personal information
(Section 13, DPA).
1. Description of the personal
data to be entered into the
system
2. Purposes for which data will
be processed (e.g. direct
marketing, statistical, scientific
etc.)
3. Basis for processing, especially
when it is not based on consent (e.g.
public health and safety, mandatory
reporting of illness, disease
surveillance)
4. Scope and method of the
personal data processing
5. Recipients to whom data
WHAT IS THE may be disclosed
CONSENT OF
THE DATA
SUBJECT? 6. Methods used for automated
access by the recipient and the
To protect privacy, the law
requires organizations to notify extent to which such access is
and furnish their data subjects authorized
with the following information
before they enter personal
data into any processing 7. Identity and contact details
system, or at the next practical of the PIC or its representative
opportunity:
9. What are the guidelines 8. The duration for which data
in collecting and accessing will be stored.
personal data?
 WHAT DO I NEED TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN STORING
CLIENTS’ INFORMATION?
The DPA and its IRR provides that personal data shall not be retained longer than
necessary:

01 02 03
for the fulfillment of the for the establishment, For legitimate business
declared, specified, and exercise or defense of legal purposes, which must be
legitimate purpose, or when claims; or consistent with standards
the processing relevant to followed by the applicable
the purpose has been industry or approved by
terminated; appropriate government
agency. by law.
• Likewise, retention of personal data shall be allowed in cases provided
B. BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
OF TECHNOLOGY

Technology has its advantages on the health

care system primarily on streamlining the
services and makes the workload of
healthcare professionals lighter and more
efficient. Specifically, the three major
benefits of technology in healthcare
according to Ross (2019) are as follows:

Improved Care Coordination

Improved Population Health Management
Improved Patient Education
 CHALLENGES OF TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE
The challenges of technology in healthcare can be viewed into three categories
according to Zarif (2022) namely:

1. Healthcare Organizations
The expense of technology is one of the most significant difficulties for
enterprises in terms of installation and subsequent upkeep.
The inability to precisely measure intangible patient and cost advantages
makes valuing and justifying capital spending on new technologies
problematic. When compared to broad deployments, remote monitoring
may be viewed as a compromise.
Proponents say that reducing needless hospitalization can reduce
healthcare expenses, which may be especially important in chronic illness
management. This is advantageous from a utilitarian standpoint in terms of
achieving successful outcomes for as many patients as feasible.
2. Healthcare Providers
Despite the fact that healthcare technology offers great opportunities to
enhance healthcare outcomes, improper use must be addressed. The
technological imperative relates to the inevitability of new technology and
its necessary character, which indicates the necessity for adoption for
social benefit. The dominance of technology in healthcare arguably
modifies the objective of healthcare from preservation and restoration
under responsible autonomy to death prevention.
3. Patients
The implications of the moral obligation bleed over into the issues that
patients face. The necessity to assure appropriate use of costly equipment
(at least during the early adoption period) and the moral obligation to use
new technology directly contradicts the need to protect patient autonomy,
as drawn from the application of personalism to healthcare systems.
C. CURRENT TECHNOLOGY:
ISSUES AND DILEMMA
Privacy and Security. The issue of privacy and security will
always be in question once technology is applied in the
healthcare setting. Autonomy and transparency relates to
this issue as to what choice can the patient make.
According to Shaw and Donia (2021)it is in the interest of
technology developers and other supporters of digital
health to keep attention focused on technical challenges
that can be contained and addressed using technical
approaches.
Sociotechnical Health Shaw and Donia (2021) defined
Sociotechnical as to the observation that issues pertaining
to technologies such as applications of digital health are
never solely about the material technology itself, but about
the mutual dependencies between technologies and the
social arrangements in which they are built and used. The
term “sociotechnical” thus denotes a broadening of focus
from the issues defined by a technology itself, to the
broader universe of issues opened up by the recognition
that technologies are built and embedded in the social
world in ways that profoundly shape and are shaped by
human life.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Shaw and Donia (2021) identified that ethical issues at the level of application software
include effectiveness, usability, inclusiveness, transparency, and other issues related to
the functioning and direct use of the digital health offering.
MATERIAL DEVICES AND SUPPLY CHAINS
The actual materials used to build and distribute the devices through which humans
interact with digital health technologies are frequently overlooked in ethical analyses, but
they are crucial for a comprehensive view of digital health ethics.
INFRASTRUCTURES
This refers to the hardware and software required to operate digital devices. Shaw and
Donia (2021)added that infrastructures include the buildings in which health care providers
work when delivering virtual care, the cables and wires that enable digital signals to travel
over distance, and the corporate structures of the organizations that make digital
communication available. Ethical issues relevant to infrastructure includes a lack of high-
speed internet availability precludes a particular community from accessing digital health
care.
INDIVIDUAL HEALTH-RELATED PRACTICES
Shaw and Donia (2021)highlighted that digital technologies are used in a variety of
health-related applications, many of which are intended to promote healthy activity and
the management of disease among individual people.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Digital health technologies have the potential to have a wide range of effects on
interpersonal relationships. One prominent example is the significant impact of social
media applications on public understanding of health-related science and policy.

ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES
Digital technologies have the potential to dramatically alter daily work practices, and thus
the structure and function of organizations. The manner in which health-care
organizations navigate the transition from analog to digital work environments is likely
to have far-reaching consequences for the nature of health-care work and patient care.