Social Sciences and Humanities Framework for the ICU Hubs
To assure sustainability and long-term success of the implemented Cyber-Physical System for Telemedicine and Intensive Care (CPS4TIC), the project will put in place co-creation environments in each ICU Hub. Co-creation is a process that includes the stakeholders affected by the implementation to assure solutions are attuned to the different expectations, knowledges and needs.
Together - we will make healthier decisions!
We invite you to take part in our brainstorming process, contribute from your knowledge and experience and help us to impact the health system in the EU. In this section, surveys and discussions will be published, and we will also share the conclusions that will be drawn, following the consultation.
How to participate? It is very simple: Sign up for the site, enter the various discussions, upload your own answers, comment and "like" other people's answers, or share relevant information.
SSH - Why does it matter
Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) highlights the relevance of the local contexts where (healthcare) technologies are to be implemented and the specific ecologies of the people that collectively care for ICU patients at these sites. The knowledge about local conditions and arrangements of healthcare in the hospital supports the ability to describe regulatory frameworks regarding healthcare, resources for implementing CPS4TIC, and established routines of providing healthcare — and the challenges they pose are key for the scalability of CPS4TIC to new ICU Hubs.
RRI Approach
Ethics & Privacy
Preserving the values of privacy and ethics is a cornerstone of a stable and democratic society. The rapid entry of new technologies such as AI into daily life in general and the health care system, in particular, poses both technological and social challenges that have a major impact on privacy and ethics issues.
To adequately respond to these challenges, research and innovation must respect fundamental rights and the highest ethical standards. Beyond the mandatory legal aspects, we need to ensure increased societal relevance and acceptability of research and innovation outcomes. (European Commission 2012). In the context of telemedicine and healthcare, the clinical data, which includes the data produced, stored, and transferred via telemedical infrastructures, enjoys protection under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that need to be met when storing, processing, or transferring data related to patients’ health status. However, that’s not enough - the use of big data and the variety of mobile medical apps, wearables, chatbots, connected devices, etc., can be harnessed in more than one way, so clear codes of privacy and ethics need to be established and be enforced. Beyond that, AI in healthcare presents challenges in other areas like the impact on the workforce and how medics will be trained and learn to cooperate and work alongside the machine, questions about responsibility - e.g, what will happen when decisions and diagnostics are increasingly made by machines? What will be the meaning of accountability, who will be held accountable for mistakes? These issues do not only require new technological standards, such as safe encryption for the storage and transfer of data, but also new ways of engagement for medical professionals.
Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI) aims to ensure that research and innovation activities are being carried out in a reflective and inclusive way. The concept expresses the relationship between science and society as "Science with and for society". This implies, among other things, the introduction of broader foresight and impact assessment for new technologies, beyond the anticipatory market benefits and risks' and it is a continuous engagement of societal actors during the whole R&I process, to better align both the process and the outcomes of their research, with the values, needs and expectations of the society.Six main indicators were identified to measure the impacts of RRI activities in qualitative and quantitative terms: Public Engagement; Gender Equality: Science Education: Open Access; Ethics and Governance.
Policy& Public Engagement
To enhance the alignment of ICT to society, policy and regulation on the European and national levels should be adopted. It should be a co-creation process where societal needs are being considered, along with technology foresight in all aspects of R & I.
Moreover, public involvement in the decision-making process is essential to enhance the responsiveness of healthcare systems in a wide range of fields such as health service planning and delivery, research, and priority-setting. It improves decision-making, enhancing awareness, understanding and competencies, and risk mitigation. Thus, the voice of patients, their families, and carers, together with staff and the wider community must present and they should be partners in the design, development, and delivery of services. Public engagement also creates the space for ethical value-laden issues to be explored, while bringing inclusiveness, transparency, diversity, and creativity into the research and innovation process. It allows different groups to establish a common language, arrive at joint understandings, learn from each other, explore controversies, and co-create ideas, knowledge, or solutions.
