Ethical and Legal Implications of Incorporating Genomic Information into Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Integrating genomic information into electronic health records (EHRs) represents a transformative advancement in healthcare delivery, ushering in an era of precision medicine that promises more personalized and effective treatment approaches. The gradual evolution towards the center of genetic information in global healthcare implies several essential ethical, legal, and social considerations that must be recognized. It has been suggested that while the marriage of genomic science and health information technology offers one of the greatest opportunities to enhance patient care, the drive also poses wholly new problems of privacy, security, and appropriate handling of highly personal genetic information.
The human has it is said that the human genome possesses about 3 billion base pairs and any differences that occur in these sequences can be a threat to disease development or affect drug efficacy and treatment plans. When this much genetic data is then captured into EHR it makes EHR an important tool for delivering more accurate and individualized care to patients (Williams et al., 2019). However, this integration also brings several challenges in connection with data handling, as well as with ethical and legal issues. To this end, this paper discusses the concept of incorporating genomic information into EHRs and the implications of the use of genomics in EHRs about primary areas of concern namely privacy, patients' rights and legal considerations, duties of the healthcare organizations, and the social effects of availability of genetic information. By exploring these various dimensions, we intend to satisfy this goal and present a hopeful and clear picture of the problems and possibilities of this new addition to healthcare distance technology.