Unethical Use of Technology Data
Name
Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Due Date
Unethical use of data involves using given information for a purpose that is not intended, and that brings harm to human conditions (Hand, 2018). With increased advancement in technology, chances of data manipulation have increased. This essay will summarize an article on the misuse of data, analyze the unethical problem, and examine the role of the Biblical world view in the issue.
Article summary
In January 2020, the United States Department of Justice released information on Practice Fusion Inc. The company admitted to allowing manipulation of electronic health records (EHR) to increase the prescription of opioid drugs. Practice Fusion Inc. is a health information technology developer based in San Francisco. The company agreed to utilize its electronic health records in a way that the system could manipulate health care providers to prescribe pain drugs of a significant company. The article also claims that other companies used the EHR for the same purpose. In return, Practice Fusion Inc. received kickbacks.
The health information based company implemented clinical decision support (CDS) alerts in its electronic health records software that could influence opioid prescriptions by explicitly increasing the use. During the development of the CDS alerts, Practice Fusion allowed the companies to design and identify guidelines to be used in the alert. Furthermore, the companies also set the criteria to determine the timing of the reception of the alert and even crafted the language of the alert itself. Through the pain marketing alert, health care providers prescribed a lot of opioids to the patients between the year 2014 to 2019. The Practice Fusion Inc. concealed various certification aspects of its electronic health records software from the ONC Authorized Certified Body. Therefore Practice Fusion did not comply with the regulatory guidelines fully. More so, the company did not use standardized vocabularies eligible for certification and consequently managed to engage in malpractice without the relevant authorities noticing.
Ethical problem analysis
The ethical problem in the case is the manipulation of the electronic health records software to send ill-intended CDS alerts to health providers who, in turn, prescribes unnecessary massive opioids to patients. The CDS are ill-intended as the producers aimed to increase their sales and not to help users. Practice Fusion Inc. also received kickbacks, and therefore it was an all money affair. Besides, the designing of the alerts is manipulative, as depicted by the language used and the timing of when the health providers received them. Another ethical concern surrounding the data manipulation event is the Practice Fusion Company’s action to conceal some certification aspects of the electronic health records to the relevant authorities. Further, using data terms that do not meet standardization criteria is unethical. Electronic health records deal with people’s health and engaging in practices that jeopardize their well-being is wrong. Although the opioid producers and the Practice Fusion Company benefited, their action has contributed to significant damage.
For instance, opioid drugs are highly addictive and can harm patients in different ways, especially when individuals cannot live without them (Hurstak et al., 2017). The action also compromises the ethical principle of non-maleficence, which requires health providers to use interventions that do not bring harm to patients (Liaw et al., 2020). Additionally, the manipulated data make health providers submit false claims to the federal and leads to misleading payments. Consequently, the problem by Practice Fusion Inc. to manipulate the electronic health record system leads to a string of further falsification of information. Also, it impacts human conditions negatively, and thus it’s unethical.
Additionally, the Biblical worldview considers the manipulation of information as unacceptable. Various excerpts of the Bible focus on the provision of falsified data and view the act as evil. For instance, in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 16, the Bible speaks against bearing a forced witness. It says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” When Practice Fusion Inc. deliberately allowed the opioid company to influence and include manipulative information on the CDS alerts, it bears false witness. The Biblical worldview is clearly against cheating, as it considers it morally wrong. Some incidents in the Bible reveal telling lies as an evil behavior that should be punished as it causes harm to others. For example, 2 Peter 2:3 states that “And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” The verse indicates that individuals who falsify information are greedy. Greed is a term associated with selfish desires and does not fit into the moral uprightness of the Biblical worldview. The terms of the Biblical Worldview can be noticed in the article as the intention of the opioid producers and the Practice Fusion Inc. companies was to make more money.
Conclusion
Incidences of unethical use of data have increased in contemporary society following technology advancement. Most individuals and companies engaging in the practice have selfish desires that do not factor adverse impacts on human conditions. The effect of data manipulation leads to several other problems, some of which fall under ethics construct; hence, the action is undesirable and unacceptable.-2