Self-Tracking, Hacking, or Slacking? Health Justice in an Era of mHealth Technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65539/3jyb7p56Keywords:
mHealth, mobile health technology, health justice, medical ethics, privacy, health policyAbstract
As the doctor-patient relationship continues to evolve, there is increased enthusiasm for the role of mHealth technologies (smartphone apps or wearable sensors that monitor/log health-related functions) in the promotion of precision medicine. But numerous challenges have also emerged in the collection, transmission, and storage of personal health data. This paper addresses the ethical, legal, and public policy implications of mHealth use in the just allocation of health care resources. First, it utilizes Beauchamp and Childress' four principles of medical ethics (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice) to weigh ethical considerations; next, it reviews privacy issues (e.g. informed consent, use of personal health information), and marketing influences, all of which raise legal concerns; and, finally, it looks at practical implementation of mHealth data/analysis, discussing evidence of current and future impacts upon health policy.
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Copyright (c) 2020 Nancy Tuck (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
