Beyond Googling: The Ethics of Using Patients' Electronic Footprints in Psychiatric Practice
Beyond Googling: The Ethics of Using Patients' Electronic Footprints in Psychiatric Practice
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DOI：
10.1097/hrp.0000000000000145
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发表时间：
2017-07-01
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Appelbaum, Paul S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fisher, Carl E.;Appelbaum, Paul S.
电子通信是人们生活中越来越重要的一部分，许多信息都可以通过这种手段获得。临床报告表明，精神卫生专业人员开始在治疗中使用患者的电子活动信息，他们的数据收集实践远远超出了简单地在网上搜索患者。学术和私营部门的研究人员都在开发心理健康应用程序，以收集患者信息用于临床目的。然而，专业协会和评论员就从电子通信或其他在线活动中获取或使用信息的最佳做法提供了最低限度的指导。本文综述了有关使用患者电子活动的临床和伦理问题，主要集中在患者自愿与临床医生共享信息的情况下。我们讨论了心理健康患者的电子足迹用于治疗目的的潜在用途，并考虑了潜在的好处和缺点和风险。临床医生是否决定使用这些信息来治疗任何特定的病人，如果是的话，其使用的性质和范围，需要个案分析。但是，我们有理由假设，根据临床医生的情况和目标，他们会遇到患者的电子活动与治疗相关并对治疗有用的情况。
Electronic communications are an increasingly important part of people's lives, and much information is accessible through such means. Anecdotal clinical reports indicate that mental health professionals are beginning to use information from their patients' electronic activities in treatment and that their data-gathering practices have gone far beyond simply searching for patients online. Both academic and private sector researchers are developing mental health applications to collect patient information for clinical purposes. Professional societies and commentators have provided minimal guidance, however, about best practices for obtaining or using information fromelectronic communications or other online activities. This article reviews the clinical and ethical issues regarding use of patients' electronic activities, primarily focusing on situations in which patients share information with clinicians voluntarily. We discuss the potential uses of mental health patients' electronic footprints for therapeutic purposes, and consider both the potential benefits and the drawbacks and risks. Whether clinicians decide to use such information in treating any particular patient-and if so, the nature and scope of its use-requires case-by-case analysis. But it is reasonable to assume that clinicians, depending on their circumstances and goals, will encounter circumstances in which patients' electronic activities will be relevant to, and useful in, treatment.