Designing for ethical innovation:a case study on ELSI co-design in emergency

The ever more pervasive ‘informationalization’ of crisis management and response brings both unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Recent years have seen the emergence of attention to ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) in the field of Information and Communication Technology. However, disclosing (and addressing) ELSI issues in design is still a challenge because they are inherently relational, arising from interactions between people, the material and design of the artifact, and the context. In this article, we discuss approaches for addressing such ‘deeper’ and ‘wider’ political implications, values and ethical, legal and social implications that arise between practices, people and technology. Based on a case study from the BRIDGE project, which has provided the opportunity for deep engagement with these issues through the concrete exploration and experimentation with technologically augmented practices of emergency response, we present insights from our interdisciplinary work aiming to make design and innovation projects ELSI-aware. Crucially, we have seen in our study a need for a shift from privacy by design towards designing for privacy, collaboration, trust, accessibility, ownership, transparency etc., acknowledging that these are emergent practices that we cannot control by design, but rather that we can help to design for—calling for approaches that allow to make ELSI issues explicit and addressable in design-time

ELSI guidelines for networked collaboration and information exchange in PPDR and risk governance

Networked collaboration and information exchange technologies have transformative potential for PPDR and risk governance. However, it is difficult to shape these transformations in a way that supports real world practices of collaboration and sense-making, and it is even more difficult to do so in ways that are ethically, legally and socially sensitive and proactive. This paper presents efforts to construct Ethical, Legal and Social Issues or ‘ELSI’ Guidelines for Networked Collaboration and Information Exchange in PPDR. The Guidelines would facilitate Risk Governance and serve as a living community resource to support the design and use of IT for PPDR and Risk Governanc

Networked Urbanism and Disaster

In a world of networked urbanism, where people affected by disaster connect intensively with each other, the media and emergency agencies, why do warnings go amiss? Why does knowledge of risk not translate into preparedness? Why are the mobilities of information so poorly understood? In this chapter, we build on a synthesis of insights from disaster management, policy, mobilities and design research, and science and technology studies (STS) to study how these disaster-related networked mobilities create complex landscapes of communication, interdependence and responsibility that are difficult to translate into preparedness. Our analysis informs, and is informed by, research collaborations with emergency responders, engineers and technology designers with the aim of understanding and developing social and digital technologies for collaboration. By bringing attention to new networked partnerships, we aim to provide a set of critical tools with which to consider practices of risk governance as an example of networked urbanism

PANC Study (Pancreatitis: A National Cohort Study): national cohort study examining the first 30 days from presentation of acute pancreatitis in the UK

Abstract Background Acute pancreatitis is a common, yet complex, emergency surgical presentation. Multiple guidelines exist and management can vary significantly. The aim of this first UK, multicentre, prospective cohort study was to assess the variation in management of acute pancreatitis to guide resource planning and optimize treatment. Methods All patients aged greater than or equal to 18 years presenting with acute pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria, from March to April 2021 were eligible for inclusion and followed up for 30 days. Anonymized data were uploaded to a secure electronic database in line with local governance approvals. Results A total of 113 hospitals contributed data on 2580 patients, with an equal sex distribution and a mean age of 57 years. The aetiology was gallstones in 50.6 per cent, with idiopathic the next most common (22.4 per cent). In addition to the 7.6 per cent with a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, 20.1 per cent of patients had a previous episode of acute pancreatitis. One in 20 patients were classed as having severe pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria. The overall mortality rate was 2.3 per cent at 30 days, but rose to one in three in the severe group. Predictors of death included male sex, increased age, and frailty; previous acute pancreatitis and gallstones as aetiologies were protective. Smoking status and body mass index did not affect death. Conclusion Most patients presenting with acute pancreatitis have a mild, self-limiting disease. Rates of patients with idiopathic pancreatitis are high. Recurrent attacks of pancreatitis are common, but are likely to have reduced risk of death on subsequent admissions. </jats:sec

Experimenting with the ethical impact assessment

This paper discusses an experiment with a formative method for ethical impact assessment (EIA) in the context of IT design for multi-agency crisis management that draws on scenarios and role-playing to ground ethics in a broader socio-technical domain not just in user needs and values. Contextualising the EIA discussions in this way opened up new avenues for addressing ethical concerns, broadening the design context from a focus on usability to thinking creatively and collaboratively through ethical, legal and social implications

Emergency ethics, law, policy & IT innovation in crises

Ethics, law, and policy are cornerstones for effective IT innovation in crisis response and management. While many researchers and practitioners recognise this, it can be hard to find good resources for circumspect innovation approaches. This paper reviews The Library of Essays on Emergency Ethics, Law and Policy (2013), a four Volume series edited by Tom D. Campbell, that presents a collection of 113 seminal articles and chapters on emergency ethics, law and policy, and emergency research ethics. Building on a selective summary overview of each volume, the authors draw out core themes and discuss their relevance to research concerned with the design and use of intelligent systems for crisis response and management. The series brings together important insights for information system design and organizational innovation, but there is a lack of attention to socio-technical dimensions of emergency response and management. The authors conclude by discussing research within ISCRAM and the related fields of science and technology studies and IT Ethics, showing that entering into a conversation would be highly productive