Digital health ethics for precision medicine in palliative care

A new article in OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology examines the ethical, equity, and societal/relational implications of digital health technologies for precision medicine in end-of-life care.

John Noel Viana, Ph.D., from The Australian National University, and co-authors specifically assess the implications of two precision health modalities: 1) integrated systems biology/multi-omics analysis for disease prognostication; and 2) digital health technologies for health status monitoring and communication. The investigators provide 10 recommendations to ensure that precision health technologies are developed, tested, and implemented ethically, inclusively, and equitably.

"Overall, precision health technologies can complement the 'warm touch,' or empathic and person-centered approach, offered by palliative care, if they are developed in an inclusive manner that accounts for the perspectives of multiple stakeholders," state the authors. "In addition, developers and researchers must be cognizant of associated ethical and translational concerns and aim at being transparent about and mitigating them."

"This analysis highlights digital health and precision/personalized medicine in palliative care. It unpacks the ethical, equity, and societal dimensions in this new intersection of multi-omics technologies with digital precision medicine. I welcome future manuscripts on critically informed interdisciplinary studies of digital health and omics-guided precision/personalized medicine for peer-review in the journal," says Vural Özdemir, MD, Ph.D., DABCP, MA Editor-in-Chief of OMICS.