Current Ethical Requirements for Mobile Phone SurveysJanuary 28, 2019 |
Few scholars have focused on the ethics of mobile health (mHealth) for active surveillance of risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A new study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research team under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative (D4H) sought to address this gap by surveying global stakeholders to identify ethics-related knowledge and perceptions on the use of mobile phone surveys (MPS) to gather NCD risk factor information in LMICs.
The study was published in January by Global Public Health.
The study is believed to be the first of its kind to identify ethics-related attitudes and practices of stakeholders invested in the conduct and oversight of mHealth in LMICs. Global stakeholders consisting of those experienced in law, mHealth, ethics, social science, NCDs, public health surveillance and MPS technology were surveyed. Respondents came from 40 countries, with 61% indicating a nationality corresponding to a developing region. Nearly three-quarters reported that “close to all” of their professional time takes place in, or directly involves, LMICs.
”We found that while there was strong support and enthusiasm for mobile phone surveys overall, the majority of stakeholders expressed that the current ethical and regulatory requirements for conducting the surveys were unclear or inadequate, potentially due to a lack of guidance on the use of digital technologies for active surveillance,” says lead author Joseph Ali JD, an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health and associate director for global programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. The study also note that ethics guidelines for mobile and digital health may be context and technology specific, and that the study’s findings can inform the process of developing such guidance for mobile phone-based active disease surveillance.
Tags: bioethics, international health, joseph ali, mobile phone, oversight, public health, regulation, survey
