HSCI 319W Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Personal Boundaries, Contact Tracing, Foodborne Illness
28 Feb 2020
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Document Summary
Involves collection and analysis of health-related data in order to improve public health. Can involve monitoring infectious disease, tracking chronic conditions, and analyzing electronic health records, among many other means. Identifiable data can be needed to respond to public health needs. Passive: healthcare providers submit data as required by law. Shift to online electronic data sources blurs this distinction. Individuals typically are not asked to consent to the collection of their data for public health surveillance purposes. Requires balancing of public health goals against risk to individual privacy: must also reduce risk of harm. If you are being sold to a certain company so the company can profit. Promote the public good as much as possible. Research on humans usually requires ethics approval, consent: aims at generating generalizable knowledge. Public health practice usually does not: aims at protecting health of particular community. Thus, it is important to understand the purpose of surveillance.
