Ethics of Medical Archival Internet Research Data

Abstract

Medical research based on internet archive data, which in some ways is quite different from other data-based studies, is becoming more and more common. Despite its uniqueness and the challenges that characterize it, clear ethical rules designed to guide practitioners in this field have not yet been written. This article points to the lacuna that exists in legal and ethical texts today and offers an ethically balancing alternative. Among other features, the balance is based on the famous three laws of robotics by Asimov and a series of values, including transparency, accountability, fairness, and privacy.

Deep learning and predictive modelling for generating normalised muscle function parameters from signal images of mandibular electromyography

“…In Australia, medical data, including biomedical signal images, are archived for at least seven years post-treatment for an adult according to Privacy laws. Archival is the conversion of medical data into low storage-consuming, easy-to-view files that can be preserved over cloud storage for long-term accessibility of crucial patient-centric information in healthcare research [ 5 ]. Medical data is archived upon treatment completion for legal compliance requirements, training, research, education and to serve as reference for future diagnoses [ 6 , 7 ].…”