Professional Ethics & Standards Flashcards
7 cards from real CHI practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Ethics & Standards flashcards as text
A health informatician discovers that a recently deployed algorithm systematically underestimates pain scores for a specific ethnic group. The immediate ethical obligation is to:
Answer: Halt or flag the algorithm and escalate to clinical and ethics leadership
An algorithm causing disparate harm must be flagged immediately, as non-maleficence and justice principles require action to prevent ongoing patient harm.
Which professional standards framework is most commonly referenced for guiding ethical behavior of informaticians who hold CPHIMS certification?
Answer: HIMSS Code of Ethics
HIMSS publishes its own Code of Ethics, which is the primary framework for CPHIMS-certified health informatics professionals.
When a health informatician is uncertain whether an action is ethically permissible, the BEST first resource is:
Answer: The organization's ethics committee or compliance officer
Organizations have ethics committees and compliance officers specifically to provide guidance on ambiguous ethical situations.
Which scenario demonstrates an ethical application of secondary use of health data?
Answer: Using de-identified data to study population health trends with IRB approval
IRB-approved research using properly de-identified data represents ethical secondary use aligned with professional standards.
A health informatician receives a subpoena requesting patient records. The appropriate response is to:
Answer: Consult legal counsel and the privacy officer before disclosing any records
Legal counsel and the privacy officer must be consulted to determine what disclosures are legally required and how to comply without over-disclosing.
The ethical principle of 'non-maleficence' most directly applies when a health informatician:
Answer: Avoids implementing a system known to introduce medication errors
Non-maleficence means avoiding harm; knowingly deploying a system that causes medication errors would violate this core principle.
When a health informatics professional misrepresents their credentials on a job application, they primarily violate which ethical value?
Answer: Veracity
Misrepresenting credentials violates veracity—the obligation to be truthful and honest in all professional dealings.