ReviewFrontiers in medicine2021
Digital Technologies and Data Science as Health Enablers: An Outline of Appealing Promises and Compelling Ethical, Legal, and Social Challenges.
Review in Frontiers in medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Enhancing digital readiness and capability in healthcare: a systematic review of interventions, barriers, and facilitators.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Ethical issues raised by artificial intelligence and big data in population health: a scoping review.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Pooled it
- The gaps and challenges in digital health technology use as perceived by patients: a scoping review and narrative meta-synthesis.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Pooled it
- Facilitators of and Barriers to Accessing Hospital Medical Specialty Telemedicine Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Perceptions of People From South Asian Backgrounds With Chronic Kidney Disease on Digital Health Interventions: Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Consultation Focus Group.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Health databases and early identification of autism spectrum disorder: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Stakeholder preferences on digital health in Germany: a health preference study protocol.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Global Mapping of Telemedicine Regulation and Ethical Safeguards: Mixed Methods Exploratory Document Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Leveraging Digital Health Technologies to Assess Older Adults' Frailty and Nutritional Status: Two Cross-Sectional Studies.JMIR aging · 2026Observational
- Artificial Intelligence in Ocular Surface Tumors: Current Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Twin Transformation in Cardiothoracic Surgery: The Convergence of Digital Innovation and Sustainability.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2026Review
- A strategic framework for data science integration in undergraduate medical education and clinical training.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Review
- Research and application of digital technology in the diagnosis and treatment of androgenetic alopecia.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Review
- Negotiating privacy and responsibility in digital public health: a qualitative study of the social and ethical implications of peer-to-peer health data sharing.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Developing a Concept on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) for Data Literacy in Health Professions: A Learning Objective-Based Approach.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Telemedicine: Evidence, Challenges, and Future Directions.Cureus · 2025Review
- Enablers, obstacles, value chain and business models for private digital health business on global goods: a collective case study on private entrepreneurs in Uganda digital health space.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- High-reward, high-risk technologies? An ethical and legal account of AI development in healthcare.BMC medical ethics · 2025Review
- Digital health technologies for improving the management of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Digital technologies and data science have laid down the promise to revolutionize healthcare by transforming the way health and disease are analyzed and managed in the future. Digital health applications in healthcare include telemedicine, electronic health records, wearable, implantable, injectable and ingestible digital medical devices, health mobile apps as well as the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to medical and public health prognosis and decision-making. As is often the case with technological advancement, progress in digital health raises compelling ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI). This article aims to succinctly map relevant ELSI of the digital health field. The issues of patient autonomy; assessment, value attribution, and validation of health innovation; equity and trustworthiness in healthcare; professional roles and skills and data protection and security are highlighted against the backdrop of the risks of dehumanization of care, the limitations of machine learning-based decision-making and, ultimately, the future contours of human interaction in medicine and public health. The running theme to this article is the underlying tension between the promises of digital health and its many challenges, which is heightened by the contrasting pace of scientific progress and the timed responses provided by law and ethics. Digital applications can prove to be valuable allies for human skills in medicine and public health. Similarly, ethics and the law can be interpreted and perceived as more than obstacles, but also promoters of fairness, inclusiveness, creativity and innovation in health.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.