Ethical Implications of e-Health Applications in Early Preventive Healthcare

Abstract

As a means of preventive medicine early detection and prevention examinations can identify and treat possible health disorders or abnormalities from an early age onwards. However, pediatric examinations are often widely spaced, and thus only snapshots of the children’s and adolescents’ developments are obtained. With e-health applications parents and adolescents could record developmental parameters much more frequently and regularly and transmit data directly for ongoing evaluation. AI technologies could be used to search for new and previously unknown patterns. Although e-health applications could improve preventive healthcare, there are serious concerns about the unlimited use of big data in medicine. Such concerns range from general skepticism about big data in medicine to specific challenges and risks in certain medical areas. In this paper, we will focus on preventive health care in pediatrics and explore ethical implications of e-health applications. Specifically, we will address opportunities and risks of app-based data collection and AI-based data evaluation for complementing established early detection and prevention examinations. To this end, we will explore the principle of the best interest of the child. Furthermore, we shall argue that difficult trade-offs need to be made between group benefit on the one hand and individual autonomy and privacy on the other.

Applying Digital Health in Cancer and Palliative Care in Europe: Policy Recommendations from an International Expert Workshop (MyPal Project)

“…A key issue identified by the group looking at pediatrics was the complex ethical landscape of developing and using digital health intervention with children and young people with cancer. There is a need for robust ethical guidelines and highlighting of key considerations which should inform any policy discussion related to digital health in the pediatric setting, such as evading an oversimplified perception of children and young people with cancer as a homogenous group, and ensuring the focus remains on what intervention is in the best interest of each individual child 23 . In addition, the challenge of those children and young people who are unable to provide consent and what happens to their data when they reach adulthood, including the question of reconsent for data storage and sharing, needs addressing.…”