Ethical issues among healthcare workers using electronic medical records: A systematic review

Abstract Background Electronic Medical Records (EMR) give patients, doctors, and clinical groups advantages and bring up moral issues. Exploring to provide care in computerized age requires an evaluation of the effect of the EMR on the care of the patient and the patient-doctor relationship. The aim of the study is to classify all possible ethical concerns of healthcare professionals who are engaged in research, and service provision and to understand how they integrate the EMR into their workflow and whether specific ethical questions arise while sharing medical information both with other practitioners and with patients. Methods Conducted A systematic literature review, for which we searched four databases (PubMed/ Medline, Google scholar, and PakMediNet) between January 2011 to June 2021. Used broad terms like (Ethical issues, health care provides, electronic medical records, digital health records) as keyword searches. The authors used a narrative approach according to PRISMA guidelines 2020 (Checklist). The authors performed no meta-analysis, and did a qualitative synthesis of selected studies according to inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria required articles that reported ethical issues; the full-text articles were electronically available and published in English between January 2011 and June 2021. All identified studies like KAP studies, case reports, prospective, randomized interventional studies, and papers in other languages are not part of the study Results From the 24 papers reviewed, authors identified or discussed the following ethical principles concerning ethical issues faced by healthcare professionals during usage of electronic medical records. Autonomy was addressed in 62.5% (n=15/24) studies, beneficence 33% (n=8/24), non-maleficence 25% (n=6/24), confidentiality 58 % (n=14/24), Privacy 83% (n= 20/24), justice 50% (n=12/24), Fidelity 16% (n=4/24), veracity 8.3% (n=2/24). Conclusions The findings show that most of the ethical issues related to EMR are consistent with the ethical challenges that digital technologies introduce in healthcare, such as privacy, anonymity, security, and informed consent. Despite some evidence, more efforts need to promote ethical technology use and analysis of the ethical difficulties.