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The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks

Anticipating the ethical impact of emerging technologies is an essential part of responsible innovation. One such emergent technology is the digital twin which we define here as a living replica of a physical system (human or non-human). A digital twin combines various emerging technologies such as...

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Autores principales: Popa, Eugen Octav, van Hilten, Mireille, Oosterkamp, Elsje, Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8256511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34218818
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-021-00113-x
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author Popa, Eugen Octav
van Hilten, Mireille
Oosterkamp, Elsje
Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen
author_facet Popa, Eugen Octav
van Hilten, Mireille
Oosterkamp, Elsje
Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen
author_sort Popa, Eugen Octav
collection PubMed
description Anticipating the ethical impact of emerging technologies is an essential part of responsible innovation. One such emergent technology is the digital twin which we define here as a living replica of a physical system (human or non-human). A digital twin combines various emerging technologies such as AI, Internet of Things, big data and robotics, each component bringing its own socio-ethical issues to the resulting artefacts. The question thus arises which of these socio-ethical themes surface in the process and how they are perceived by stakeholders in the field. In this report we present the results of a qualitative study into the socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks of using digital twins in healthcare. Employing insights from ethics of technology and the Quadruple Helix theory of innovation, we conducted desk research of white literature and 23 interviews with representatives from the four helixes: industry, research, policy and civil society. The ethical scan revealed several important areas where the digital twin can produce socio-ethical value (e.g., prevention and treatment of disease, cost reduction, patient autonomy and freedom, equal treatment) but also several important areas of socio-ethical risks (e.g., privacy and property of data, disruption of existing societal structures, inequality and injustice). We conclude with a reflection on the employed analytical tool and suggestions for further research.
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spelling pubmed-82565112021-07-06 The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks Popa, Eugen Octav van Hilten, Mireille Oosterkamp, Elsje Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen Life Sci Soc Policy Research Anticipating the ethical impact of emerging technologies is an essential part of responsible innovation. One such emergent technology is the digital twin which we define here as a living replica of a physical system (human or non-human). A digital twin combines various emerging technologies such as AI, Internet of Things, big data and robotics, each component bringing its own socio-ethical issues to the resulting artefacts. The question thus arises which of these socio-ethical themes surface in the process and how they are perceived by stakeholders in the field. In this report we present the results of a qualitative study into the socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks of using digital twins in healthcare. Employing insights from ethics of technology and the Quadruple Helix theory of innovation, we conducted desk research of white literature and 23 interviews with representatives from the four helixes: industry, research, policy and civil society. The ethical scan revealed several important areas where the digital twin can produce socio-ethical value (e.g., prevention and treatment of disease, cost reduction, patient autonomy and freedom, equal treatment) but also several important areas of socio-ethical risks (e.g., privacy and property of data, disruption of existing societal structures, inequality and injustice). We conclude with a reflection on the employed analytical tool and suggestions for further research. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8256511/ /pubmed/34218818 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-021-00113-x Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Popa, Eugen Octav
van Hilten, Mireille
Oosterkamp, Elsje
Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen
The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title_full The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title_fullStr The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title_full_unstemmed The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title_short The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
title_sort use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8256511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34218818
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-021-00113-x
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