ISSN Print: 2151-805X
ISSN Online: 2151-8068
eHealth Ethics: The Online Medical Marketplace and Emerging Ethical Issues
ABSTRACT
The history of medical ethics has been marked by responses to novel challenges faced by the medical, clinical, and legal communities. These challenges have arisen from innovative treatment methods, scientific progress, and new technologies that continually pose new questions about how we frame and apply medical and clinical ethics. These questions have recently given rise to the burgeoning field of "eHealth Ethics," which attempts to evaluate the impact of digital technologies on health services and outcomes. Yet this area of study has failed to address many current challenges in the eHealth Marketplace, including direct-to-consumer advertising and the sale of medical products online. These digital interactions give rise to a number of issues that impact healthcare providers and patients, as well as businesses that require ethical scrutiny. In this article, we identify some of these emerging relationships and the problems they pose for patient safety and public health, and we suggest potential solutions to mitigate these developments. This dynamic area of medical ethics needs greater attention and coordination among various stakeholders and should continually evolve with changes in the digital environment.
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Adams Crystal, Fair Balance and Adequate Provision in Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Online Banner Advertisements: A Content Analysis, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, 2, 2016. Crossref