Using MEESTAR to Identify Ethical and Social Issues Implementing a Digital Patient-Centered Care Platform

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Bioethics
• Geriatric Care

Background:

• Optimizing communication and patient-centered care for elderly individuals is crucial.
• Digital platforms offer potential solutions but raise ethical, legal, and social issues.
• The "Pflege im Quartier" (PIQ) project focuses on developing such a platform.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the ethical considerations of a digital, patient-centered care platform for the elderly.
• To map platform features with potential ethical concerns.
• To identify ethical questions and propose solutions for privacy and ethical issues.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an instrument for the ethical evaluation of socio-technical arrangements.
• Mapped specific features of the digital care platform against identified ethical concerns.
• Developed precise ethical questions derived from real-world scenarios.

Main Results:

• Identified specific ethical and privacy issues related to the digital care platform.
• Generated precise ethical questions based on practical scenarios.
• Proposed actionable solutions to mitigate identified ethical and privacy risks.

Conclusions:

• The ethical evaluation instrument effectively highlighted key ethical and privacy challenges.
• Insights gained will inform the ongoing system design and implementation of the PIQ platform.
• Continuous integration of ethical considerations is vital for successful digital health solutions in elderly care.