scholarly journals Standardizing Social Justice in Digital Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-43
Author(s):  
Mamello Thinyane

The bivalent nature of technology and its potential for adverse impacts are giving impetus to global efforts to ensure that the outcomes of technology are consistent with societal values and desired futures. Instruments such as legislation, standards, and ethical frameworks are being employed towards this end. This research investigates the domain of digital health, specifically health informatics, and asks the questions: What values should inform technical solutions in this domain? How can data justice, the infusing of social justice imperatives in data systems, be standardized in this domain? The paper presents findings from a review of data justice in health informatics supported by findings from a survey that explored key considerations for health data collection, processing, use, sharing, and exchange. The paper then presents the operationalization of the human data interaction framework through a health informatics system architecture to illustrate how the principles of legibility, agency, and negotiability can be standardized, mainstreamed, and embedded in health informatics.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devin R. Berg ◽  
Tina Lee

Traditional engineering education often falls short when it comes to the inclusion of issues related to social justice, ethics, and globalization. While engineering programs are required to include ethics content for accreditation, most seem to rely primarily on general education electives, providing only a high-level overview and including the bare minimum in the program core. This can lead to an inconsistent student experience and minimal exposure to topics which are critically important for achieving worldwide equity and operating responsibly in the engineering workplace. Given the role that engineers play in economic development, this is unacceptable. It is therefore the responsibility of engineering educators to find a better way to shape the future of the engineering profession. This paper outlines the early efforts at integrating the topics of ethics, social justice, and social responsibility more directly into the engineering curriculum. This is approached from the perspectives of pedagogy, curriculum development, and service learning opportunities. It is within this context that the authors hope to influence students' awareness of and connection to social and environmental issues as well as the ethical frameworks they develop and carry with them into their professional careers. This paper centers around the creation and delivery of a new introductory engineering course combining liberal education topics and introductory engineering topics. This course also includes a substantial design project which incorporates a cultural engagement component through collaboration with international partners. The first offering of this new course revealed that, while some reservations persist, students found value in exploring what it means to be an engineer in a broader global context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Rahman ◽  
Alan Hales ◽  
Ryan Beegan ◽  
David Cable ◽  
David Rew

Abstract Background Many surgeons work within multidisciplinary cancer teams. The Somerset Cancer Register (SCR) is a national reporting system for service performance which is in use in more than 100 NHS Trusts. However, the core system has not yet been optimised for MDT users or for the surfacing of clinical data for research and other uses. Methods SCR replaced our legacy cancer reporting system in 2014. Working with the SCR developers, we integrated our cellular pathology and imaging records with the SCR MDT outputs. We subsequently developed SCR+ to optimise workflows for MDT coordinators and information presentation to clinical users.    Results Our HTML-enabled SCR+ software application displays all cancer patients by pathological type and year of presentation on dynamic histograms, for ease of visualisation and interaction. Every selected case is displayed in list order for each and every MDT meeting, with a fast hyperlink to our integral Lifelines EPR interface, to electronic pathology records back to 1990, and to our Breast Cancer Data System for relevant patients. Conclusions The SCR+ module transforms the access and visualisation of cancer workload across our Trust for all authorised MDT users, with appropriate data security. The agile programming methodology allowed us to build a sustainable cancer data system with further development potential. The product substantially enhances user experience, data recall and productivity over legacy systems. Close cooperation between clinically proficient  IT teams and clinicians as the end consumers of digital health data systems yields significant operational benefits at pace and with very modest costs.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (01) ◽  
pp. 015-025
Author(s):  
Fernando Martin-Sanchez ◽  
Marion J. Ball ◽  
Michio Kimura ◽  
Paula Otero ◽  
Elaine Huesing ◽  
...  

Background: The International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) is the Academy of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). As an international forum for peers in biomedical and health informatics, the Academy shall play an important role in exchanging knowledge, providing education and training, and producing policy documents. Objectives: A major priority of the Academy’s activities in its inaugural phase was to define its strategy and focus areas in accordance with its objectives and to prioritize the Academy’s work, which can then be transferred to respective taskforces. Method: This document reflects the major outcomes of intensive discussions that occurred during 2019. It was presented at the Academy’s 3rd Plenary on August 25th, 2019, in Lyon, France. Results: Regardless of the ‘living nature’ of the strategy and focus areas document, it was concluded during the Plenary that the first version, which will be used as a base for decisions on the Academy’s future activities, should be made available to a broad audience. Three out of eight ‘Visions for IAHSI‘, presented in the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2018, were identified as central for developing, implementing, and evaluating the Academy’s strategic directions: (1) advise governments and organizations on developing health and health sciences through informatics, (2) stimulate progress in biomedical and health informatics research, education, and practice, and (3) share and exchange knowledge. Taskforces shall be implemented to work in the following areas, which were considered as priority themes: (1) artificial intelligence in health: future collaboration of entities with natural and with artificial intelligence in health care, and (2) current landscape of standards for digital health. Conclusions: Taskforces are now being established. Besides specific key performance indicators, suggested for monitoring the work of theses taskforces, the strategy to monitor the progress of the Academy itself has to be measured by relevant and acceptable metrics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 188-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Staccini ◽  
L. Fernandez-Luque ◽  

Summary Objective: To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers’ relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers. Results: The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information–seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour. Conclusions: Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management integrating ethics rules. Only increasing efforts in education with regards of digital health would help reach this goal., This would not resolve all frauds and security issues but at least improve their detection.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Blease ◽  
Anna Kharko ◽  
Cosima Locher ◽  
Catherine M. DesRoches ◽  
Kenneth D. Mandl

AbstractObjectiveTo solicit leading health informaticians’ predictions about the impact of AI/ML on primary care in the US in 2029.DesignA three-round online modified Delphi poll.ParticipantsTwenty-nine leading health informaticians.MethodsIn September 2019, health informatics experts were selected by the research team, and invited to participate the Delphi poll. Participation in each round was anonymous, and panelists were given between 4-8 weeks to respond to each round. In Round 1 open-ended questions solicited forecasts on the impact of AI/ML on: (1) patient care, (2) access to care, (3) the primary care workforce, (4) technological breakthroughs, and (5) the long-future for primary care physicians. Responses were coded to produce itemized statements. In Round 2, participants were invited to rate their agreement with each item along 7-point Likert scales. Responses were analyzed for consensus which was set at a predetermined interquartile range of ≤ 1. In Round 3 items that did not reach consensus were redistributed.ResultsA total of 16 experts participated in Round 1 (16/29, 55%). Of these experts 13/16 (response rate, 81%), and 13/13 (response rate, 100%), responded to Rounds 2 and 3, respectively. As a result of developments in AI/ML by 2029 experts anticipated workplace changes including incursions into the disintermediation of physician expertise, and increased AI/ML training requirements for medical students. Informaticians also forecast that by 2029 AI/ML will increase diagnostic accuracy especially among those with limited access to experts, minorities and those with rare diseases. Expert panelists also predicted that AI/ML-tools would improve access to expert doctor knowledge.ConclusionsThis study presents timely information on informaticians’ consensus views about the impact of AI/ML on US primary care in 2029. Preparation for the near-future of primary care will require improved levels of digital health literacy among patients and physicians.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 103-104

Adler-Milstein J, Zhao W, Willard-Grace R, Knox M, Grumbach K. Electronic health records and burnout: Time spent on the electronic health record after hours and message volume associated with exhaustion but not with cynicism among primary care clinicians. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7647261/ Brewer LC, Fortuna KL, Jones C, Walker R, Hayes SN, Patten CA, Cooper LA. Back to the Future: Achieving Health Equity Through Health Informatics and Digital Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6996775/ Reading Turchioe M, Grossman LV, Myers AC, Baik D, Goyal P, Masterson Creber RM. Visual analogies, not graphs, increase patients' comprehension of changes in their health status. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7309237 Tschandl P, Rinner C, Apalla Z, Argenziano G, Codella N, Halpern A, Janda M, Lallas A, Longo C, Josep Malvehy J, Paoli J, Puig S, Rosendahl C, Soyer HP, Zalaudek I, Kittler H. Human-computer collaboration for skin cancer recognition. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0942-0


Author(s):  
Dorota Chapko ◽  
Jessica Butler ◽  
Corri Black ◽  
Marjorie Johnston ◽  
Caroline Fall ◽  
...  

IntroductionWe now have the opportunity to disentangle the complexities of lifespan brain health through linking rich birth cohorts data to novel information utilizing health informatics techniques. Wellcome Trust evidenced that efforts to manage and link digital health data require exploring the attitudes of public and data guardians towards this initiative. Objectives and ApproachOur teams in Aberdeen, Mysore and Mumbai have established general population cohorts that have provided evidence on the early-life origins of later-life diseases. In 2016, we engaged with the participants of the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (62-68,N~8,400) in an event attended by 350 study members. We are also engaging with members and data guardians of Mysore Parthenon Cohort (20-21y,N~500), Mysore Birth Records Cohort (51-83y,N~750), and Mumbai Maternal Nutrition Cohort (5-11y,N~1,600). This qualitative project utilises focus groups and individual interviews. The goal is to understand their attitudes and perceived public benefits towards future novel data collection, data platforms and biorepositories. ResultsThe ACONF event attendees were very willing to volunteer for further studies. The highest support was for ‘provide a blood sample’ (92%) and the lowest for ‘take an online survey’ (83%). They were satisfied with data governance but had incomplete understanding of linkage possibilities with their data. Through the ongoing activities in Mysore and in Mumbai, we aim to achieve the following: 1) Develop awareness of health informatics through public engagement with participants and researchers; 2) Explore attitudes and potential barriers to creation of secure data linkage between imaging, laboratory, health data and outcomes to facilitate future linkage studies; 3) Understand what is required for interoperable, secure data storage and plan future biorepository as a resource for researchers that will build over time in India. Conclusion/ImplicationsThe proposed activities will inform preparation of a large scale grant to investigate the hypothesis that early life environment affects future risk of mental illness and cognitive ability globally. They will also begin to create a platform of enduring value for future cross-cultural population research.


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