scholarly journals Digital Twins in Health Care: Ethical Implications of an Emerging Engineering Paradigm

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Bruynseels ◽  
Filippo Santoni de Sio ◽  
Jeroen van den Hoven
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Digital Twins

scholarly journals Digital Twin Technology: Revolutionary to improve personalized healthcare

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harita Garg
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Preventative Care ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
The Status ◽  
Data Driven Approach

Personalized medicine uses fine grained information on individual persons, to pinpoint deviations from the normal. ‘Digital Twins’ in engineering provide a conceptual framework to analyze these emerging data-driven health care practices, as well as their conceptual and ethical implications for therapy, preventative care and human enhancement. Digital Twins stand for a specific engineering paradigm, where individual physical artifacts are paired with digital models that dynamically reflects the status of those artifacts. Moral distinctions namely may be based on patterns found in these data and the meanings that are grafted on these patterns. Ethical and societal implications of Digital Twins are explored. Digital Twins imply a data-driven approach to health care. This approach has the potential to deliver significant societal benefits, and can function as a social equalizer, by allowing for effective equalizing enhancement interventions

Leveraging Social Media for Human Factors Research in Health Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-85
Author(s):  
Rupa S. Valdez ◽  
Annie T. Chen ◽  
Andrew J. Hampton ◽  
Kapil Chalil Madathil ◽  
Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Human Factors Research

There has been a significant increase in using social media for academic research and there is an opportunity for human factors professionals to incorporate these platforms into their research. Social media platforms provide a rich space to study extant data on health information communication, behaviors, and impacts and to recruit study participants. In this session, panelists will discuss using social media to study health-related topics including health management, gender-based violence, disaster response, self-harm, patient ergonomics, and secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. They will share how they have collected and analyzed data and recruited study participants from social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. They will also speak to the benefits and challenges of as well as ethical implications for using social media for research. There will be space for a moderated discussion to identify ways social media can be leveraged for human factors research in health care.

Brains, Machines, and the Persons in Between

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Reilly ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Brain Machine Interface ◽  
Therapeutic Applications ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Private Realm ◽  
Machine Interface ◽  
Human Brains ◽  
Great Harm

The ethical implications of brain–machine interface (BMI) are mind-boggling. Connecting a person’s brain to a computer or other machine and successfully transmitting thoughts and instructions bidirectionally has enormous potential for therapeutic applications in health care; but great harm can come from meddling with fragile human brains, succumbing to the temptations of cognitive enhancement, and exposing vulnerable individuals to the power relations formed among owners, generators, users, and sellers of what was once considered the private realm of human thoughts.

scholarly journals Exploring the Unmet Needs of the Patients in the Outpatient Respiratory Medical Clinic: Patients versus Clinicians Perspectives

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Lone Birgitte Skov Jensen ◽  
Ulf Brinkjær ◽  
Kristian Larsen ◽  
Hanne Konradsen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Medical Clinic ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Emotional Suffering ◽  
Medical Clinics ◽  
Guidance Program ◽  
Fitting In

Aim. Developing a theoretical framework explaining patients’ behaviour and actions related to unmet needs during interactions with health care professionals in hospital-based outpatient respiratory medical clinics.Background. The outpatient respiratory medical clinic plays a prominent role in many patients’ lives regarding treatment and counselling increasing the need for a better understanding of patients’ perspective to the counselling of the health care professionals.Design. The study is exploratory and based on Charmaz’s interpretation of grounded theory.Methods. The study included 65 field observations with a sample of 43 patients, 11 doctors, and 11 nurses, as well as 30 interviews with patients, conducted through theoretical sampling from three outpatient respiratory medical clinics in Denmark.Findings. The patients’ efforts to share their significant stories triggered predominantly an adaptation or resistance behaviour, conceptualized as “fitting in” and “fighting back” behaviour, explaining the patients’ counterreactions to unrecognized needs during the medical encounter.Conclusion. Firstly this study allows for a better understanding of patients’ counterreactions in the time-pressured and, simultaneously, tight structured guidance program in the outpatient clinic. Secondly the study offers practical and ethical implications as to how health care professionals’ attitudes towards patients can increase their ability to support emotional suffering and increase patient participation and responsiveness to guidance in the lifestyle changes.

scholarly journals The Argument Against a Biosimilar Switch Policy for Infliximab in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Living in Alberta

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 234-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilaad G Kaplan ◽  
Christopher Ma ◽  
Cynthia H Seow ◽  
Karen I Kroeker ◽  
Remo Panaccione
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽  
Bowel Disease ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Pooled Analysis ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Patient Consent ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel

Abstract A nonmedical switch policy is currently being considered in Alberta, which would force patients on originator biologics to biosimilar alternatives with the hypothetical aim of reducing costs to the health care system. The evidence to support the safety of nonmedical switching in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is of low to very low quality; in fact, existing data suggest a potential risk of harm. In a pooled analysis of randomized controlled trials, one patient would lose response to infliximab for every 11 patients undergoing nonmedical switching. Switching to a biosimilar has important logistical and ethical implications including potential forced treatment changes without appropriate patient consent and unfairly penalizing patients living in rural areas and those without private drug insurance. Even in the best-case scenario, assuming perfectly executed switching without logistical delays, we predict switching 2,000 patients with Remicade will lead to over 60 avoidable surgeries in Alberta. Furthermore, nonmedical switching has not been adequately studied in vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women, and elderly patients. While the crux of the argument for nonmedical switching is cost savings, biosimilar switching may not be cost effective: Particularly when originator therapies are being offered at the same price as biosimilars. Canadian patients with IBD have been surveyed, and their response is clear: They are not in support of nonmedical switching. Policies that directly influence patient health need to consider patient perspectives. Solutions to improve cost efficiency in health care exist but open, transparent collaboration between all involved stakeholders is required.

Disruptive Innovation in Dentistry: What It Is and What Could Be Next

2020 ◽  
pp. 002203452097877
Author(s):  
T. Joda ◽  
A.W.K. Yeung ◽  
K. Hung ◽  
N.U. Zitzmann ◽  
M.M. Bornstein
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Health Care Service ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Ethical Implications

Dentistry is a technically oriented profession, and the health care sector is significantly influenced by the ubiquitous trend of digitalization. Some of these digital developments have the potential to result in disruptive changes for dental practice, while others may turn out to be just a pipedream. This Discovery! essay focuses on innovations built on artificial intelligence (AI) as the center-technology influencing 1) dental eHealth data management, 2) clinical and technical health care applications, and 3) services and operations. AI systems enable personalized dental medicine workflows by analyzing all eHealth data gathered from an individual patient. Besides dental-specific data, this also includes genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic information and therefore facilitates optimized and personalized treatment strategies and risk management. Based on the power of AI, the triangular frame of “data”/“health care”/“service” is supplemented by technological advancements in the field of social media, Internet of things, augmented and virtual reality, rapid prototyping, and intraoral optical scanning as well as teledentistry. Innovation continues to be critical to tackle dental problems until its routine implementation based on sound scientific evidence. Novel technologies must be viewed critically in relation to the cost-benefit ratio and the ethical implications of a misleading diagnosis or treatment produced by AI algorithms. Highly sensitive eHealth data must be handled responsibly to enable the immense benefits of these technologies to be realized for society. The focus on patient-centered research and the development of personalized dental medicine have the potential to improve individual and public health, as well as clarify the interconnectivity of disease in a more cost-effective way.

Are Mental Disorders Brain Disorders?

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Callie Joubert
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Category Mistake ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The U.S

The mission of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health is to transform understanding and treatment of mental disorders. According to its former director, Dr. Thomas Insel, fundamental to its mission is the proposition that “mental illnesses are brain disorders.” The aim of this article is to examine this proposition and to argue that it does not make sense. As a scientific proposition, it is based on contentious empirical claims, and as a metaphysical proposition, it is consistent with those who claim that a person is a brain. A conceptual analysis is employed as a tool to show that it is a category mistake to ascribe psychological properties of a person to a brain. The article concludes with a brief indication of the ethical implications of Insel’s proposition for mental health care.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document