Challenges in ethics, safety, best practices, and oversight regarding HIT vendors, their customers, and patients: a report of an

The current commercial health information technology (HIT) arena encompasses a number of competing firms that provide electronic health applications to hospitals, clinical practices, and other healthcare-related entities. Such applications collect, store, and analyze patient information. Some vendors incorporate contract language whereby purchasers of HIT systems, such as hospitals and clinics, must indemnify vendors for malpractice or personal injury claims, even if those events are not caused or fostered by the purchasers. Some vendors require contract clauses that force HIT system purchasers to adopt vendor-defined policies that prevent the disclosure of errors, bugs, design flaws, and other HIT-software-related hazards. To address this issue, the AMIA Board of Directors appointed a Task Force to provide an analysis and insights. Task Force findings and recommendations include: patient safety should trump all other values; corporate concerns about liability and intellectual pro...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: JAMIA
• Authors: Kenneth W. Goodman, Eta S. Berner, Mark A. Dente, Bonnie Kaplan, Ross Koppel, Donald Rucker, Daniel Z. Sands, Peter Winkelstein
• Keywords: Electronic Health Applications, JAMIA 2011, Patient Safety, Task Force