AphA Code of Conduct

Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts

Code of Conduct for Professional Analytics Competence

The Association is formed to promote the interests of the professional group of analysts in health and social care. Formed in 2013 we are the professional body who aim to support information analysts and specialists working in the health and social care sectors. Our mission is to promote best practice and innovation whilst supporting professional and personal development.

The APHA Code of Conduct sets out the standards of behaviour required of health care analyst professionals. It deals with all aspects of professional activity including registrants’ duties to patients, the public, employers and colleagues.

The codes serve several purposes:

To provide ethical guidance for the professionals themselves,
To furnish a set of principles against which the conduct of the professionals may be measured, and
To provide the public with a clear statement of the ethical considerations that should shape the behaviour of the professionals themselves

Adoption of the Code of Conduct is a mandatory prerequisite for registration with APHA in any category and a registered person who fails to comply with the code will be removed from the APHA registers.

The AphA Code of Conduct requires that a health analytics professional shall:

Maintain high standards of professional and technical competence appropriate to the role and discipline and continuously seek to develop their knowledge and competence;
Only undertake work for which they are professionally competent, and conversely that no person knowingly works beyond their current competence except as part of a properly supervised training and development programme;
Encourage and support fellow registrants in their professional development and contribute to the education and training of your colleagues;
Ensure that junior colleagues, students and apprentices are properly supervised;
Respect and recognise the skills and contributions of your colleagues;
Accept personal responsibility for all work done or advice given by them or by others under their supervision or direction;
Promote respect for the individual and their rights, ensuring equal opportunities in all aspects of professional activity;
Promoting professionalism in health informatics through all aspects of their work, acting as advocates for high standards in the management of health information in their workplace, and setting an example of high standards to staff and colleagues;
Sharing their knowledge and experience with their peers, participating in professional activities and organisations appropriate to their role and discipline, and encouraging others to do so;
Carry out their duties with diligence and integrity for the benefit of the employer and/or client;
Refuse any personal inducement in the exercise of professional judgement, avoiding any real or apparent conflict of interest;
Ensure awareness of, and compliance with any relevant legislation or
Observe the duties regarding protecting the security, confidentiality, accuracy and integrity of information;
Consider the public good, giving due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment;
Avoid personal behaviour, public statements or actions likely to bring the profession, or individual members of the profession, into disrepute, and notifying AphA promptly of any circumstances that might do so;
Notify AphA of any significant violation of their Code of Conduct by another member;
Ensure patient and public safety and welfare is to be prioritised above all other commitments – this includes a duty of candour and appropriate reporting where harm can be reasonably anticipated by the actions or omissions of the registrant, their employer or third party;
Maintain skills and competence by undertaking continued professional development, including providing evidence of activities undertaken to keep up-to-date with techniques, evidence and ethics in the registrant’s area of practice.