Information technology has an increasing, and increasingly important, role in medical practice and research. This includes precision medicine and all its tools and strategies. This chapter begins with a review of the history of the electronic health record, then identifies and discusses the ethical issues and challenges that arise in precision medicine because of the essential role of information technology.

These issues include the appropriate uses and users of clinical decision support systems, practices and standards in software engineering, and the challenges of Big Data, machine learning and Learning Healthcare Systems. It is concluded that a robust ethics presence will help address the identification and balancing of conflicting rights, justify those rights and duties and provide consultation support for measured and proportionate governance tools.

Goodman KW. Bioethics and Precision Medicine Focus on Information Technology. In: Phillips KA, Racz, LA and Yamamoto DP, eds. Total Exposure Health: An Introduction. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2020. pp. 281–9.