Joint Research Project: Medicine 4.0 - The ethical Fundament of Digitalization in Health Care

Funded by Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (BMG),

Direction subproject Ethics: Prof. Dr. med. Georg Marckmann MPH
Coordination, Direction subproject Social Sciences/ Health Sciences: Prof. Dr. Dr. med. habil. Dr. phil. Dr. theol. h. c. Eckhard Nagel, University Bayreuth
Research Associate: Dr. Bettina Schmietow, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Teilprojekt Ethik
Duration: 1.11.2017-31.08.2020

This project analyses digital health-related technologies in an empirically based ethical-normative research design. It focuses on the areas of health-related and medical apps as well as telemedicine with a special focus on telemonitoring. On the basis of an interdisciplinary cooperation of two scientific institutes and the use of external, practice-oriented expertise, the ethically relevant effects of these technologies are identified and evaluated, e.g. on physician-patient relationships, the relationship between personal responsibility and solidarity, and the autonomy of the individual. With reference to a principle-oriented ethics approach, ethical areas of conflict are investigated and an evaluation matrix is created that is appropriate to the dynamics of this field of technology. The overarching goal is to create a guideline that provides ethically justified recommendations and concrete options for action for all actors and stakeholders involved and as part of which a practice-relevant implementation of the research results should be consistently considered.