Digital health ethics for precision medicine in palliative care

A new article in the peer-reviewed OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology examines the ethical, equity, and societal/relational implications of digital health technologies for precision medicine in end-of-life care. Click here to read the article now. 

John Noel Viana, PhD, from The Australian National University, and coauthors specifically assess the implications of two precision health modalities: (1) integrated systems biology/multi-omics analysis for disease prognostication; and (2) digital health technologies for health status monitoring and communication. The investigators provide 10 recommendations to ensure that precision health technologies are developed, tested, and implemented ethically, inclusively, and equitably.

“Overall, precision health technologies can complement the ‘warm touch,’ or empathic and person-centered approach, offered by palliative care, if they are developed in an inclusive manner that accounts for the perspectives of multiple stakeholders,” state the authors. “In addition, developers and researchers must be cognizant of associated ethical and translational concerns and aim at being transparent about and mitigating them.”

“This analysis highlights digital health and precision/personalized medicine in palliative care. It unpacks the ethical, equity, and societal dimensions in this new intersection of multi-omics technologies with digital precision medicine. I welcome future manuscripts on critically informed interdisciplinary studies of digital health and omics-guided precision/personalized medicine for peer-review in the journal.” says Vural Özdemir, MD, PhD, DABCP, Editor-in-Chief of OMICS.

About the Journal
OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology is an authoritative and highly innovative peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal published monthly online, addressing the latest advances at the intersection of postgenomics medicine, biotechnology and global society, including the integration of multi-omics knowledge, data analyses and modeling, and applications of high-throughput approaches to study complex biological and societal problems. Public policy, governance and societal aspects of the large-scale biology and 21st century data-enabled sciences are also peer-reviewed. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many areas of science and biomedical research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.