Big Data and Digitalization in Dentistry: A Systematic Review of the Ethical Issues

Maddalena Favaretto, David Shaw, Eva De Clercq, Tim Joda and Bernice Simone Elger
Additional contact information
Maddalena Favaretto: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
David Shaw: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Eva De Clercq: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Tim Joda: Department of Reconstructive Dentistry, University Center for Dental Medicine Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Bernice Simone Elger: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Big Data and Internet and Communication Technologies (ICT) are being increasingly implemented in the healthcare sector. Similarly, research in the field of dental medicine is exploring the potential beneficial uses of digital data both for dental practice and in research. As digitalization is raising numerous novel and unpredictable ethical challenges in the biomedical context, our purpose in this study is to map the debate on the currently discussed ethical issues in digital dentistry through a systematic review of the literature. Four databases (Web of Science, Pub Med, Scopus, and Cinahl) were systematically searched. The study results highlight how most of the issues discussed by the retrieved literature are in line with the ethical challenges that digital technologies are introducing in healthcare such as privacy, anonymity, security, and informed consent. In addition, image forgery aimed at scientific misconduct and insurance fraud was frequently reported, together with issues of online professionalism and commercial interests sought through digital means.

Keywords: Big Data; digital dentistry; oral health; ethical issues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2495/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2495/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2495-:d:341916

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().