Ethics Committees and Technical Complexity in Digital Health Research

The growing incorporation of algorithmic systems, synthetic datasets, and complex digital infrastructures into biomedical and epidemiological research has introduced significant interpretive and procedural challenges for ethics review. Existing committee structures, while central to research governance, frequently lack the technical capacity to evaluate the assumptions and implications of such technologies. This limitation raises substantive concerns about the consistency and adequacy of ethical appraisal, particularly where models operate on generated data, probabilistic logic, or opaque validation processes. The routine classification of these studies as low risk, despite high methodological opacity, further compounds the problem. This paper outlines a framework intended to support committee deliberation without displacing existing review mandates. Its adoption may mitigate inconsistencies in committee judgement and reduce deferral to claims of technical neutrality that currently escape ethical analysis.