Special Section on Ethics in Health Informatics.

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Bioethics

Background:

• Ethical considerations are crucial in the rapidly evolving field of medical informatics.
• Research in 2019 addressed significant ethical challenges within healthcare data management and technology implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and summarize the most impactful research contributions on ethics in medical informatics published in 2019.
• To highlight key ethical issues and their influence on applied informatics.

Main Methods:

• An extensive literature search was performed using PubMed/Medline for publications from 2019.
• A multi-stage selection process involving editors, external reviewers, and an editorial committee identified the top three papers.

Main Results:

• The selected papers address pressing ethical concerns relevant to the medical informatics community.
• These contributions demonstrate the direct impact of ethical considerations on the practical application of informatics in healthcare.

Conclusions:

• Data sharing and patient privacy remain central ethical challenges in medical informatics.
• The ethical implications of artificial intelligence development and deployment represent a growing area of research interest.