ABSTRACT
Health services and health professionals the world over are faced with a challenging and exciting task in harnessing communication technology to improve patient care by utilising e-health developments through the use of ‘health informatics’. Proposals for integrated electronic health systems have emerged in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, whose proponents almost universally describe these proposals as facilitating an ‘individual’ or ‘consumer’ focus in health care. However, its use should ideally support, and must certainly not be in conflict with, fundamental medical ethical principles of beneficence, non-malfeasance and respect for patients’ autonomy.
