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Ethical practice in sharing and mining medical data

Kevin Watson (College of Business, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, USA)
Dinah M. Payne (College of Business Administration, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society

ISSN: 1477-996X

Article publication date: 17 April 2020

Issue publication date: 3 March 2021

744

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review current practice in sharing and mining medical data revealing benefits, costs and ethical issues. Based on stakeholder perspectives and values, the authors create an ethical code to regulate the sharing and mining of medical information.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework is based on a review of academic, practitioner and legal research.

Findings

Owing to the inability of current safeguards to protect consumers from risks related to the disclosure of medical information, the authors develop a framework for ethical sharing and mining of medical data, security, transparency, respect, accountability, community and quality (STRACQ), which espouses security, transparency, respect, accountability, community and quality as the basic tenets of ethical data sharing and mining practice.

Research limitations/implications

The STRACQ framework is an original, previously unpublished contribution that will require modification over time based on discussion and debate within and among the academy, medical community and public policymakers.

Social implications

The framework for sharing borrows from the Fair Credit Reporting Act, allowing the collection and dissemination of identified medical data but placing strict limitations on use. Following this framework, benefits of shared and mined medical data are freely available with appropriate safeguards for consumer privacy.

Originality/value

Mandates for adoption of electronic health-care records require an understanding of medical data mining. This paper presents a review of data mining techniques and reasons for engaging in the practice of identifying benefits, costs and ethical issues. The authors create an original framework, STRACQ, for ethical sharing and mining of medical information, allowing knowledge exploration while protecting consumer privacy.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor, reviewers, and editorial staff for their efforts to improve our initial thoughts into the final manuscript presented here. Without their assistance, this would not have been possible.

Citation

Watson, K. and Payne, D.M. (2021), "Ethical practice in sharing and mining medical data", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-08-2019-0088

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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