CARING FUTURES: a study protocol for transdisciplinary qualitative research on technology-mediated care practices and theory development for ethics of care.

introductionThe world's population is ageing. As older persons live longer and increase in number, society faces a greater disease burden and, in public welfare, a corresponding resource deficit. New technology is one solution to this deficit but there is scarce knowledge about ethical aspects of such innovations in care practices. In CARING FUTURES, we address this scarcity by interrogating how new technology in care can become ethically sound and, correspondingly, how ethics of care can become more technology aware. Our concern is to protect quality care for the future. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CARING FUTURES advances transdisciplinarity through knowledge exchange around technology-mediated care and ethics of care, involving key stakeholders. We rely on established and innovative methods to generate experience-near and practice-near knowledge. Through this empirical research, we seek to expand understanding of technology-mediated care and to enrich ethics of care theory. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Empirical studies have been approved or await approval by national ethics committees. CARING FUTURES is designed to create societal impact through