Health Technology Assessment for In Silico Medicine: Social, Ethical and Legal Aspects

Carlo Giacomo Leo, Maria Rosaria Tumolo, Saverio Sabina, Riccardo Colella, Virginia Recchia, Giuseppe Ponzini, Dimitrios Ioannis Fotiadis, Antonella Bodini and Pierpaolo Mincarone
Additional contact information
Carlo Giacomo Leo: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Maria Rosaria Tumolo: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Saverio Sabina: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Riccardo Colella: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Virginia Recchia: Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Giuseppe Ponzini: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, 72100 Brindisi, Italy
Dimitrios Ioannis Fotiadis: Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Antonella Bodini: Institute for Applied Mathematics and Information Technologies “E. Magenes”, National Research Council, 20133 Milan, Italy
Pierpaolo Mincarone: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, 72100 Brindisi, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: The application of in silico medicine is constantly growing in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. These technologies allow us to support medical decisions and self-management and reduce, refine, and partially replace real studies of medical technologies. In silico medicine may challenge some key principles: transparency and fairness of data usage; data privacy and protection across platforms and systems; data availability and quality; data integration and interoperability; intellectual property; data sharing; equal accessibility for persons and populations. Several social, ethical, and legal issues may consequently arise from its adoption. In this work, we provide an overview of these issues along with some practical suggestions for their assessment from a health technology assessment perspective. We performed a narrative review with a search on MEDLINE/Pubmed, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The following key aspects emerge as general reflections with an impact on the operational level: cultural resistance, level of expertise of users, degree of patient involvement, infrastructural requirements, risks for health, respect of several patients’ rights, potential discriminations for access and use of the technology, and intellectual property of innovations. Our analysis shows that several challenges still need to be debated to allow in silico medicine to express all its potential in healthcare processes.

Keywords: in silico medicine; digital twin technology; artificial intelligence; computer modeling and simulation; ethical aspects; legal aspects; social aspects; health technology assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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