Implantable Smart Technologies (IST): Defining the ‘Sting’ in Data and Device

Abstract

In a world surrounded by smart objects from sensors to automated medical devices, the ubiquity of ‘smart’ seems matched only by its lack of clarity. In this article, we use our discussions with expert stakeholders working in areas of implantable medical devices such as cochlear implants, implantable cardiac defibrillators, deep brain stimulators and in vivo biosensors to interrogate the difference facets of smart in ‘implantable smart technologies’, considering also whether regulation needs to respond to the autonomy that such artefacts carry within them. We discover that when smart technology is deconstructed it is a slippery and multi-layered concept. A device’s ability to sense and transmit data and automate medicine can be associated with the ‘sting’ of autonomy being disassociated from human control as well as affecting individual, group, and social environments.

Narrative Devices: Neurotechnologies, Information, and Self-Constitution

“…This discussion is intended to apply to information about individual users' brains and minds, collected and generated by neurotechnologies used in a wide range of applications and settings. 2 I will talk about 'information about the brain and the mind' as a pair, while taking a non-reductionist view of the mind which holds that, even if mental events have neural correlates, they are not wholly reducible to these. And knowledge of someone's brain activity is not equivalent to knowledge of the qualities or contents of their thoughts or experiences [6].…”

“…These include monitoring, prediction, diagnosis, targeting and delivering therapeutic interventions, device control, communication and entertainment, in a range of research, clinical, judicial, commercial, military, educational, and consumer settings [9][10][11]. Various methods of structural and functional neuroimagingranging from magnetic resonance imaging 1 There is considerable body of scholarship discussing the effects of the presence or operation of implanted BCIs, neuroprosthetics and neuromodulation devices (especially the cognitive, affective and behavioural effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS)) on users' sense of embodiment or identity (see, for example, [1][2][3][4][5]). In some circumstances it may not be possible to draw a neat line between the effects of information and the effects of the presence or operation of a device.…”

A Review of Internet of Things Technologies for Ambient Assisted Living Environments

“…• Internet integration into relatively small devices, that could be integrated into currently still not computerized systems (e.g., household devices for smart house deployment and/or energy saving) or implanted into human body so as to increase mobility and quality of life of disabled people [157][158][159]; • Possibility for deployment of cheap geographically distributed and scalable network-centric infrastructure and middleware for AAL based on cloud computing and IoT (e.g., for monitoring passenger flows in transport, observing weather conditions for climate control, etc.) [160].…”

Special Issue of Health Care Analysis: Translational Bodies—Ethical Aspects of Uses of Human Biomaterials

“…This includes: our relationship with ourselves and the significance of consent and control to our identity were we to be subject to genetic enhancement [2]; our medical relationships as smart implantable devices remove control from both patient and physician, and perhaps the associated sense of responsibility too [4]; the potential breakdown of trust between science and its publics because narratives about past practices do not necessarily apply appropriately to current standards [6]; and that the trust needed for scientific cooperation between states is damaged by concentration of benefits in a few countries [7].…”

“…[3,5] Does control by others of 'our' biomaterial necessarily create vulnerability and powerlessness? [2,4,6] What forms of control over human biomaterials are suited to meeting public health goals? These questions highlight the connection of the issues presented herein to longstanding ethical concern about how to balance individual and group interests.…”