Ethical issues of personal health monitoring: a literature review

Personal Health Monitoring (PHM) technologies are currently in development to supplement medical care environments with health monitoring outside “brick and mortar” settings to better meet the needs of people with long-term illnesses. This review identifies common themes in the current literature di...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mittelstadt, B, Fairweather, B, Shaw, M, McBride, N
Format: Conference item
Published: Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility 2011
Description
Summary:Personal Health Monitoring (PHM) technologies are currently in development to supplement medical care environments with health monitoring outside “brick and mortar” settings to better meet the needs of people with long-term illnesses. This review identifies common themes in the current literature discussing ethics of PHM and gaps in need of further research. Identified themes include privacy, autonomy, medicalization, social isolation, visibility and impact on healthcare providers. An in-depth discussion of the ethical issues of PHM was rarely found in the searched literature. Areas in need of further research include inadvertent monitoring and the impact of PHM on families and patient relationships.