A code of ethics for health informatics professionals.

A Code of Ethics for Health Informatics Professionals (HIPs) should therefore be clear, unambiguous, and easily applied in practice. Moreover, since the field of informatics is in a state of constant flux, it should be flexible so as to accommodate ongoing changes without sacrificing the applicability of its basic principles. It is therefore inappropriate for a Code of Ethics for HIPs to deal with the specifics of every possible situation that might arise. That would make the Code too unwieldy, too rigid, and too dependent on the current state of informatics. Instead, such a Code should focus on the ethical position of the Health Informatics specialist as a professional, and on the relationships between HIPs and the various parties with whom they interact in a professional capacity. These various parties include (but are not limited to) patients, health care professionals, administrative personnel, health care institutions as well as insurance companies and governmental agencies, etc.