Back to the future? Diabetes, HIV, and the boundaries of public health

Online Public Health Intelligence: Ethical Considerations at the Big Data Era

Often times terms such as Big Data, increasing digital footprints in the Internet accompanied with advancing analytical techniques, represent a major opportunity to improve public health surveillance and delivery of interventions. However, early adaption of Big Data in other fields revealed ethical challenges that could undermine privacy and autonomy of individuals and cause stigmatization. This chapter aims to identify the benefits and risks associated with the public health application of Big Data through ethical lenses. In doing so, it highlights the need for ethical discussion and framework towards an effective utilization of technologies. We then discuss key strategies to mitigate potentially harmful aspects of Big Data to facilitate its safe and effective implementation.

Shifting the paradigm: using HIV surveillance data as a foundation for improving HIV care and preventing HIV infection

CONTEXT

Reducing HIV incidence in the United States and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV hinge on improving access to highly effective treatment and overcoming barriers to continuous treatment. Using laboratory tests routinely reported for HIV surveillance to monitor individuals' receipt of HIV care and contacting them to facilitate optimal care could help achieve these objectives. Historically, surveillance-based public health intervention with individuals for HIV control has been controversial because of concerns that risks to privacy and autonomy could outweigh benefits. But with the availability of lifesaving, transmission-interrupting treatment for HIV infection, some health departments have begun surveillance-based outreach to facilitate HIV medical care.

METHODS

Guided by ethics frameworks, we explored the ethical arguments for changing the uses of HIV surveillance data. To identify ethical, procedural, and strategic considerations, we reviewed the activities of health departments that are using HIV surveillance data to contact persons identified as needing assistance with initiating or returning to care.

FINDINGS

Although privacy concerns surrounding the uses of HIV surveillance data still exist, there are ethical concerns associated with not using HIV surveillance to maximize the benefits from HIV medical care and treatment. Early efforts to use surveillance data to facilitate optimal HIV medical care illustrate how the ethical burdens may vary depending on the local context and the specifics of implementation. Health departments laid the foundation for these activities by engaging stakeholders to gain their trust in sharing sensitive information; establishing or strengthening legal, policy and governance infrastructure; and developing communication and follow-up protocols that protect privacy.

CONCLUSIONS

We describe a shift toward using HIV surveillance to facilitate optimal HIV care. Health departments should review the considerations outlined before implementing new uses of HIV surveillance data, and they should commit to an ongoing review of activities with the objective of balancing beneficence, respect for persons, and justice.

Diabetes and HIV: current understanding and future perspectives

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease with a higher risk of associated infections. HIV infection severely affects diabetic patients and acts as a significant health concern. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has changed HIV from an acute infection to a chronic infection with associated significant metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, and lipodystrophy. These metabolic disturbances add complexity to the standards of care in HIV infection and further increase the risk for cardiovascular disease and renal complications. The co-association of diabetes and HIV needs to be managed appropriately to prevent mortality and morbidity and improve patient outcome. The current understanding of diabetes and other metabolic abnormalities along with management strategies in HIV infected patients are summarized in this article. The review also focuses on recent challenges in the diagnosis and management of co-existent diabetes and HIV infection.

Public interest and private concern: the role of family carers for people suffering mental illness in the twenty first century

OBJECTIVES

This paper looks to examine the emerging role of carers as essential components in the management of individuals affected by severe mental illness in the context of modern legal and health policy environments.

CONCLUSIONS

Cultural and legal concepts of confidentiality within the doctor-patient relationship are complex. Increasingly, evidence is recognizing the essential role of carers in the quality management of individuals affected by severe mental illness and this emphasis is being further supported by innovative health policy and legislation. A public health definition for the role of carers may be a more appropriate way to consider their role in mental health management strategies.

Tracking diabetes: New York City's A1C Registry

CONTEXT

In December 2005, in characterizing diabetes as an epidemic, the New York City Board of Health mandated the laboratory reporting of hemoglobin A1C laboratory test results. This mandate established the United States' first population-based registry to track the level of blood sugar control in people with diabetes. But mandatory A1C reporting has provoked debate regarding the role of public health agencies in the control of noncommunicable diseases and, more specifically, both privacy and the doctor-patient relationship.

METHODS

This article reviews the rationale for adopting the rule requiring the reporting of A1C test results, experience with its implementation, and criticisms raised in the context of the history of public health practice.

FINDINGS

For many decades, public health agencies have used identifiable information collected through mandatory laboratory reporting to monitor the population's health and develop programs for the control of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The registry program sends quarterly patient rosters stratified by A1C level to more than one thousand medical providers, and it also sends letters, on the provider's letterhead whenever possible, to patients at risk of diabetes complications (A1C level >9 percent), advising medical follow-up. The activities of the registry program are similar to those of programs for other reportable conditions and constitute a joint effort between a governmental public health agency and medical providers to improve patients' health outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Mandatory reporting has proven successful in helping combat other major epidemics. New York City's A1C Registry activities combine both traditional and novel public health approaches to reduce the burden of an epidemic chronic disease, diabetes. Despite criticism that mandatory reporting compromises individuals' right to privacy without clear benefit, the early feedback has been positive and suggests that the benefits will outweigh the potential harms. Further evaluation will provide additional information that other local health jurisdictions may use in designing their strategies to address chronic disease.