Computers and Ethical Treatment for Brain-Injured Patients

Abstract

Special treatments are needed for the rehabilitation of brain-injured patients as well as for other medical illnesses The ethical criteria for outcome are the welfare and positive results in recovery, using multidisciplinary perspectives. Pervasive ethical issues include inappropriately and/or poorly trained rehabilitation practitioners; trends toward replacement of clinicians with computers, exclusion of neuropsychologists from treatment planning and monitoring of cognitive rehabilitation; sociopolitical biases which limit access to treatment; limited vocational goal formulation; overlooking common sources of head injury; violation of patient confidentiality; poorly developed treatment programs, including software, use of standardized psychological tests as training exercises; and unnormed computerized assessment software. This paper addresses the above problems with a focus on brain-injured patients. Solutions are recommended and can be used as a basis for ethical considerations by other disciplines. Recommended ethical approaches are illustrated, using computer-assisted neuropsychological rehabilitation. Keywords brain injured, ethics, rehabilitation, computers, gender, neuropsychological, treatment.