Medical Information Systems Ethics

2Ethical Modeling: From the Design to the Use of an Information System

For many years now, diagnostic investigation via medical imaging has been accused of widening the breach in the doctor–patient relationship. The development of computer and digital applications meant for the collaborative search for information among healthcare professionals does not adequately take into account the nature and real needs of the therapeutic act [MEN 09]. For some, IT in healthcare is contributing to the “mechanical assimilation of the human body, which sidelines the flesh-and-blood reality of mankind” [LEB 99]. Its use by the practitioner leads to a reductionist, dualist and mechanical vision inherited from the Cartesian tradition.

Today, human–machine communication constitutes a major technological, industrial and social challenge. The difficulty is no longer only of further extending these performances, but of improving exchanges of information with human users and adapting to their expectations and skills. All technologies define a relationship between human beings and their environment, both human and physical; indeed, one of the great lessons of Hippocrates is to study humans in their biotope in order to be useful to them. As this environment is now largely digital, it is advisable to observe it from an ethical point of view.

No technology can be considered purely instrumental. The human factor, and thus the human–computer interaction, is primordial. In a multidisciplinary context, this ...