Empowerment or Engagement? Digital Health Technologies for Mental Healthcare

We argue that while digital health technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, smartphones, and virtual reality) present significant opportunities for improving the delivery of healthcare, key concepts that are used to evaluate and understand their impact can obscure significant ethical issues related to patient engagement and experience. Specifically, we focus on the concept of empowerment and ask whether it is adequate for addressing some significant ethical concerns that relate to digital health technologies for mental healthcare. We frame these concerns using five key ethical principles for AI ethics (i.e. autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and explicability), which have their roots in the bioethical literature, in order to critically evaluate the role that digital health technologies will have in the future of digital healthcare

Managing the Ethical Dimensions of Brain-Computer Interfaces in eHealth: An SDLC-based Approach

A growing range of brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies is being employed for purposes of therapy and human augmentation. While much thought has been given to the ethical implications of such technologies at the ‘macro’ level of social policy and ‘micro’ level of individual users, little attention has been given to the unique ethical issues that arise during the process of incorporating BCIs into eHealth ecosystems. In this text a conceptual framework is developed that enables the operators of eHealth ecosystems to manage the ethical components of such processes in a more comprehensive and systematic way than has previously been possible. The framework’s first axis defines five ethical dimensions that must be successfully addressed by eHealth ecosystems: 1) beneficence; 2) consent; 3) privacy; 4) equity; and 5) liability. The second axis describes five stages of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) process whereby new technology is incorporated into an eHealth ecosystem: 1) analysis and planning; 2) design, development, and acquisition; 3) integration and activation; 4) operation and maintenance; and 5) disposal. Known ethical issues relating to the deployment of BCIs are mapped onto this matrix in order to demonstrate how it can be employed by the managers of eHealth ecosystems as a tool for fulfilling ethical requirements established by regulatory standards or stakeholders’ expectations. Beyond its immediate application in the case of BCIs, we suggest that this framework may also be utilized beneficially when incorporating other innovative forms of information and communications technology (ICT) into eHealth ecosystems

Health and Artificial Intelligence in the context of COVID-19 and beyond

This article introduces the main relevant aspects of ehealth or “digital health.” In this regard, by way of an introduction, the concept of health is addressed. In the second section, the core of this article, different aspects regarding the relationship between health and technology (HealthTech) are highlighted. Next, the importance of technology in order to deliver a preventive and personalized medicine, tailor-made to each patient, is addressed. Then, in the fourth section, some discriminatory situations that may arise due to not being able to access technology are discussed. Finally, I make some remarks regarding the so-called “Internet of Bodies"

Technology and Caregiving: Emerging Interventions and Directions for Research.

An array of technology-based interventions has increasingly become available to support family caregivers, primarily focusing on health and well-being, social isolation, financial, and psychological support. More recently the emergence of new technologies such as mobile and cloud, robotics, connected sensors, virtual/augmented/mixed reality, voice, and the evermore ubiquitous tools supported by advanced data analytics, coupled with the integration of multiple technologies through platform solutions, have opened a new era of technology-enabled interventions that can empower and support family caregivers. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for identifying and addressing the challenges that may need to be overcome to effectively apply technology-enabled solutions for family caregivers. The paper identifies a number of challenges that either moderate or mediate the full use of technologies for the benefit of caregivers. The challenges include issues related to equity, inclusion, and access; ethical concerns related to privacy and security; political and regulatory factors affecting interoperability and lack of standards; inclusive/human-centric design and issues; and inherent economic and distribution channel difficulties. The paper concludes with a summary of research questions and issues that form a framework for global research priorities

The Digital Transformation of Mental Health Care and Psychotherapy – A Market and Research Maturity Analysis

Digital technology trends for mental health, instantiated with only emerging use cases or already established applications, offer significant potential to improve clinical therapy and care. In this paper, we identify five major trends, mHealth/eHealth, telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and biosensors/wearables; describe seven specific technology use cases for mental health care and psychotherapy; and provide an overview of their maturity in practice

Managing the Ethical Dimensions of Brain-Computer Interfaces in eHealth: An SDLC-based Approach

A growing range of brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies is being employed for purposes of therapy and human augmentation. While much thought has been given to the ethical implications of such technologies at the ‘macro’ level of social policy and ‘micro’ level of individual users, little attention has been given to the unique ethical issues that arise during the process of incorporating BCIs into eHealth ecosystems. In this text a conceptual framework is developed that enables the operators of eHealth ecosystems to manage the ethical components of such processes in a more comprehensive and systematic way than has previously been possible. The framework’s first axis defines five ethical dimensions that must be successfully addressed by eHealth ecosystems: 1) beneficence; 2) consent; 3) privacy; 4) equity; and 5) liability. The second axis describes five stages of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) process whereby new technology is incorporated into an eHealth ecosystem: 1) analysis and planning; 2) design, development, and acquisition; 3) integration and activation; 4) operation and maintenance; and 5) disposal. Known ethical issues relating to the deployment of BCIs are mapped onto this matrix in order to demonstrate how it can be employed by the managers of eHealth ecosystems as a tool for fulfilling ethical requirements established by regulatory standards or stakeholders’ expectations. Beyond its immediate application in the case of BCIs, we suggest that this framework may also be utilized beneficially when incorporating other innovative forms of information and communications technology (ICT) into eHealth ecosystems

e-Health Application, Implementation and Challenges: A Literature Review

Background: World Health Organization, through a partnership with European Union, encourages the implementation e-health systems. E-health is a relatively old concept that is upgraded with new technologies and is directed toward monitoring different health conditions with the help of technology. Objectives: This paper\u27s main objective is to demonstrate e-health application possibilities in today’s healthcare organisations and its impact on the quality of provided health care services using ISO/TR 14639 Health informatics Capacity-based eHealth architecture roadmap. Methods/Approach: In this paper, we used the e-health architecture model for literature review based on individual areas of the model - ICT infrastructure, e-health infastructure, health process domain components, governance and national ownership. Results: Research confirms that new technologies have a favourable and significant impact on population health; however, more developed countries show a better understanding of the concept and are moving towards implementing laws and regulations for e-health practices. Conclusions: Through this research, we concluded that new technology significantly impacts health, but this impact is limited due to different development of countries. That is why it is very important to develop health literacy, which is the ability to comprehend, access, retrieve, and use health information or health services

The Artificial Intelligence in Digital Pathology and Digital Radiology: Where Are We?

This book is a reprint of the Special Issue entitled "The Artificial Intelligence in Digital Pathology and Digital Radiology: Where Are We?". Artificial intelligence is extending into the world of both digital radiology and digital pathology, and involves many scholars in the areas of biomedicine, technology, and bioethics. There is a particular need for scholars to focus on both the innovations in this field and the problems hampering integration into a robust and effective process in stable health care models in the health domain. Many professionals involved in these fields of digital health were encouraged to contribute with their experiences. This book contains contributions from various experts across different fields. Aspects of the integration in the health domain have been faced. Particular space was dedicated to overviewing the challenges, opportunities, and problems in both radiology and pathology. Clinal deepens are available in cardiology, the hystopathology of breast cancer, and colonoscopy. Dedicated studies were based on surveys which investigated students and insiders, opinions, attitudes, and self-perception on the integration of artificial intelligence in this field