Professional Ethics & Standards Flashcards

A health informatician discovers a colleague is accessing patient records without clinical need. What is the MOST appropriate first action?

Answer: Report it to the privacy officer or compliance department

Reporting unauthorized access to the privacy officer upholds HIPAA obligations and professional ethics standards.

Which ethical principle requires health informaticians to act in the best interest of patients rather than their own interests?

Answer: Beneficence

Beneficence means acting in the best interest of patients and promoting their well-being.

When a vendor offers gifts to influence a health informatician's software selection decision, this represents a conflict of:

Answer: Interest

Accepting gifts that could influence professional decisions creates a conflict of interest, which violates ethical standards.

The AMIA Code of Ethics requires health informatics professionals to disclose which of the following when publishing research?

Answer: Financial relationships with industry

Disclosing financial relationships with industry ensures transparency and prevents undisclosed conflicts of interest in research.

A health informatician is asked to alter clinical data to support a favorable outcome in a malpractice case. This action would violate which principle?

Answer: Data integrity

Altering clinical data violates data integrity, a core professional ethics standard in health informatics.

Under HIPAA's minimum necessary standard, health informaticians should limit data access to:

Answer: Only what is needed to perform a specific job function

The minimum necessary standard requires limiting PHI access to what is required for each user's specific job function.

Which of the following best describes the ethical obligation of 'veracity' in health informatics practice?

Answer: Being truthful and transparent in communications

Veracity obligates health informatics professionals to be truthful and honest in all professional communications and reporting.