Privacy And Confidentiality Essay

Individual privacy and confidentiality play a role in both research and clinical health care settings. In each instance, standards and expectations put in place by researchers and health care practitioners to follow to protect patients and research participants while interacting with them. The evolving health care system and convergence of research and treatment protocols to create learning health care systems (LHCS) are creating the need to look at patient confidentiality and privacy differently to protect them and their information.

Confidentiality and Privacy To understand the purpose of privacy and confidentiality in health care research and clinical settings, one should know the definition of each, as both are applicable in each environment. Privacy is sharing of personal information by one party to another, with the expectation the information is held between the individuals (Novak, 2017). Confidentiality is how people treat, use and represent the information provided as part of a trusting relationship and is not disclosed to another without the permission of the individual sharing information (Novak, 2017). Privacy and confidentiality expectations in research are outlined in The Belmont Report through the principles of 1) Respect for Individuals

Health care and research are no longer two different paths, but instead because the emphasis on reducing cost and increasing quality outcomes they are converging to make a LHCS. With the introduction of LHCS’s, research and treatment will converge into a new way of managing patient data. Expansion of technology and increased patient involvement in their health care will continue to create the need to reassess what privacy and confidentiality look like to the patient, researcher, practitioner, health plan and other business