SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2021
Ethics, Integrity, and Retributions of Digital Detection Surveillance Systems for Infectious Diseases: Systematic Literature Review.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- AI Quality Standards in Health Care: Rapid Umbrella Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Role of Digital Health Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Modern Public Health Surveillance.Cureus · 2026Review
- Early Warning of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Using Social Media and Digital Data: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Integrating equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout the lifecycle of artificial intelligence for healthcare: a scoping review.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Hotspots and Trends in Research on Early Warning of Infectious Diseases: A Bibliometric Analysis Using CiteSpace.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Country-Specific Data and Priorities for Pertussis in Latin America: Recent Findings From the Global Pertussis Initiative.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Ethics of AI in healthcare: a scoping review demonstrating applicability of a foundational framework.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Review
- Changes to Public Health Surveillance Methods Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Unconventional data, unprecedented insights: leveraging non-traditional data during a pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Strategies and solutions to address Digital Determinants of Health (DDOH) across underinvested communities.PLOS digital health · 2023Review
- The Role of Artificial Intelligence Model Documentation in Translational Science: Scoping Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2023Article
- In the shadow of privacy: Overlooked ethical concerns in COVID-19 digital epidemiology.Epidemics · 2022Article
- Primary Care Physicians' and Patients' Perspectives on Equity and Health Security of Infectious Disease Digital Surveillance.Annals of family medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of the deployment of digital detection surveillance systems to support early warning and monitoring of infectious diseases. These opportunities create a "double-edge sword," as the ethical governance of such approaches often lags behind technological achievements.
objectiveThe aim was to investigate ethical issues identified from utilizing artificial intelligence-augmented surveillance or early warning systems to monitor and detect common or novel infectious disease outbreaks.
methodsIn a number of databases, we searched relevant articles that addressed ethical issues of using artificial intelligence, digital surveillance systems, early warning systems, and/or big data analytics technology for detecting, monitoring, or tracing infectious diseases according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, and further identified and analyzed them with a theoretical framework.
resultsThis systematic review identified 29 articles presented in 6 major themes clustered under individual, organizational, and societal levels, including awareness of implementing digital surveillance, digital integrity, trust, privacy and confidentiality, civil rights, and governance. While these measures were understandable during a pandemic, the public had concerns about receiving inadequate information; unclear governance frameworks; and lack of privacy protection, data integrity, and autonomy when utilizing infectious disease digital surveillance. The barriers to engagement could widen existing health care disparities or digital divides by underrepresenting vulnerable and at-risk populations, and patients' highly sensitive data, such as their movements and contacts, could be exposed to outside sources, impinging significantly upon basic human and civil rights.
conclusionsOur findings inform ethical considerations for service delivery models for medical practitioners and policymakers involved in the use of digital surveillance for infectious disease spread, and provide a basis for a global governance structure.
trial registrationPROSPERO CRD42021259180; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=259180.
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Identifiers
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.