Transcript
Page 1: Looming Ethical Dilemmas:  Emerging Mobile Technologies and Prospective Roles for Medical Librarians

CONCLUSIONSWith every new technology there is potential for

both benefit and harm. The rapid growth of

mobile technology is no different. There are

countless uses for this technology from the

personal or professional standpoint.

While many day-to-day activities in a health

sciences library will not be affected by this

technology, there is room for us to expand our

traditional roles as educators, advocates, and

protectors of privacy and confidentiality.

Librarians have the opportunity to move beyond

simply announcing new technologies to

educating and making users aware of what

impact these new technologies might have on

their social privacy.

Looming Ethical Dilemmas:

Emerging Mobile Technologies and Prospective Roles for Medical Librarians

Mark Baggett and John Cyrus

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – Shreveport • Medical Library

ABSTRACTDescription: The purpose of this poster is to

describe emerging mobile technologies such

as geolocation and augmented reality, and

discuss their potential impact on patient

privacy and confidentiality. Additionally this

poster will examine possible roles for medical

librarianship in reconciling bleeding edge

technology with medical ethics.

Background: Two of the biggest mobile

trends of the past year have been geolocation

and augmented reality. Geolocation

technology identifies and tracks a mobile

device user’s location. Augmented reality

superimposes digital information on the real

world in real-time. Together, these

technologies hold the promise of many

beneficial applications; however, they also

pose a serious and real threat to privacy.

Conclusions: Given the traditional role of

librarians as stakeholders in user privacy and

confidentiality, especially in medical settings, it

is critical that medical librarians be conscious

of emerging technologies, their implications,

and take a proactive role in protecting the

rights of users and healthcare consumers.

COMMENTARYAs you can see in these images, current trends in

mobile technology present unique challenges to

the field of librarianship in general, and medical

librarianship in particular.

Whether we want it or not, we are now part of an

age of increased social interconnectedness. This

is largely due to the increase of mobile

technologies that allow people to remain in touch

wherever they are.

With this increased mobility and the use of

corresponding technologies and applications, we

have potentially witnessed a tremendous change

in our culture. This change is characterized by,

according to many, the apparent shift from a

default public preference for privacy at the social

level, to a more open stance where more

information is shared at the public level.

Again, as is demonstrated in the images on this

poster, an increase in willingness to share what

used to be private, whether it is religious

preference or your medication list, creates the

potential for conflict with much of what librarians

hold dear in regards to privacy and

confidentiality.

The potential for transmission of patient

information from mobile devices presents

concerns from a legal and ethical standpoint as

well. HIPAA regulations provide some guidance,

but fail to address these emerging mobile trends

in depth. Additionally, there is very little

discussion of this subject in the library and

information science literature.

Mark enjoys Cosmo while waiting patiently for the doctor. Meanwhile, another patient uses a mobile app to

retrieve information about him .

After receiving the bad news, Mark goes to the medical library to learn more about his condition.

Meanwhile, another user looks to see what Mark is researching.

While Mark sits privately with Dr. Mario in the exam room, a bored patient scans the office while he waits.

INTRODUCTIONThe images in this presentation represent

potential applications of existing and

developing mobile technologies in the realms

of healthcare and medical librarianship. The

use of these technologies is an extrapolation

of their current capabilities and does not

accurately represent any single existing

mobile app.

The interfaces displayed are essentially

amalgams of several popular mobile

applications such as Foursquare, Layar, and

Twitter. They represent various ways in which

concepts like geolocation and augmented

reality are used in the real world. When these

concepts are combined they can produce a

useful mashup of real-time, interactive

information about the world.

The goal of this presentation is not to present

specific instances of misuse of mobile

technology, but to encourage the audience to

think about and discuss the possible

implications or emergent dilemmas.

While many may already be familiar with

some of the technologies implied here,

definitions are provided for some of the key

concepts.

SOCIAL PRIVACY…describes the extent to which users have

control over their own information, and the

manner in which others collect, maintain, and use

personal, private information gathered from

users.

GEOLOCATION…can be as simple as pinpointing a user’s

location. Most often it is used to refer to mobile

apps that use location information to provide a

service. One popular example would be the

check-in service FourSquare.

MASHUP...is an application created by combining

information or capabilities from more than one

existing source. One example is the integration of

user reviews into a Google Maps search.

AUGMENTED REALITY…is the superimposition of graphics and data

over the real world, in real time. The most

familiar example is the yellow first down line in

football games on television.

FACIAL RECOGNITION...is the process of scanning a person’s face and

determining their identity by querying it against a

database of faces. Although not widely used

some current examples include Viewdle,

Recognizr, and Comverse.

VISUAL SEARCH ENGINES...determine the identity of objects captured in an

image and connect users with information about

or related to that object. Current examples

include GoogleGoggles and oMoby.

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