ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ethical considerations surrounding consumer health information technology and the impact on consumer health informatics research and development. It provides an overview of widely recognized core biomedical ethical principles of respect for the patient's autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. In describing them, the chapter provides examples of their relevance to the field of consumer health informatics. The chapter provides a brief history of DTC-G and discusses motivations for testing, accuracy concerns, implications of health literacy and other consumer competencies for people's ability to interpret test results, and DTC-G testing clients' reactions to receiving and interpreting test results alone. Among these eight ethical codes, at least one of the four moral principles is specified at least once, and usually more than once, from Beneficence to Autonomy to Justice. While consumer health informatics privacy considerations are largely similar to privacy considerations in healthcare and medical research, one important unique characteristic sets it aside.
