A Hippocratic Oath for technology

Modern technology needs to do better. This is the message delivered by every CEO after every Silicon Valley scandal in recent memory. This time, they should really do it. Medicine can show them how. Let’s have the professionals building our future abide by industry-wide standards, just as doctors do. As both a startup founder and a physician, this idea makes intuitive sense to me. Drawing on my experience treating patients and running a digital platform, here’s what a Hippocratic Oath for tech might look like. First, it shouldn’t say “first do no harm.” Not that I’m in favor of doing harm, but those famous words are not actually in the oath most doctors take. Like most medical students across North America, I swore the Oath of Lasagna. (Yes, really.) Dr. Louis Lasagna was the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the 1950s when he took it upon himself to modernize the 2,400-year old text first laid down by Hippocrates. Gone were the injunctions against abortion and removing kidney stones; kept were the pledges to treat the patient as a human and not abuse our positions for material gain. And therein lie the sort of commitments Silicon Valley should make. Here are five key segments of the Oath, with the small iterations necessary to make them tech-friendly. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Tech Mobile health Primary Care Source Type: blogs