Promoting Ethical and Professional Responsibility in Biomedical Informatics Education

Abstract

Increasing use of information technologies in clinical care; concerns over the role of algorithmic decision-making in everyday life; collection of vast amounts of physical, social, and personal heath data through devices, social media, and the Internet of Things; and highly-visible, informatics-driven efforts such as the Precision Medicine Initiative, make calls for responsible technology use more important than ever. This rapidly-changing landscape challenges informaticians to understand the ethical, legal, and social (ELSI) implications of these developments and informatics educators to develop approaches for incorporating them into already-crowded curricula.

This workshop will promote discussion of approaches to incorporating ELSI competencies in biomedical informatics education, research, and practice, including:

(1) a survey of foundations and competencies,

(2) current approaches for teaching ELSI concepts, and

(3) experiences, lessons learned, and novel proposals for ELSI instruction in biomedical informatics curricula.

AMIA’s core competencies include fundamental knowledge in “ethical, legal, social issues: for example, human subjects, HIPAA, informed consent, secondary use of data, confidentiality, privacy.” How should these competencies be included and evaluated in a course of study? Are they sufficient for socially responsible and ethical use of technology in biomedicine and health care? The paucity of such topics in biomedical informatics courses and curricula provides an opportunity to elicit diverse opinions and approaches about these questions. Presenters and audience will address them from varying perspectives and educational experiences.

In addition to their expertise in biomedical informatics research and teaching, presenters will draw on their different disciplinary backgrounds (engineering, history, information systems, bioethics, law, social studies of science, computer science, philosophy, human factors, nursing, anthropology, medicine, public health) and country perspectives (US, Canada, Australia) to explore ways to promote ethical and professional responsibility in biomedical informatics.