Technology and medicine are steadily converging, with ground-breaking innovations arising at the intersection of these sciences. However, this mix also raises new ethical questions. Samantha Copeland of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management is leading the mission to make ethics an integral element of sustainable innovation. 

Choices concerning values and standards are made in every phase of a development process. Ethics helps you to think about this. TU Delft is leading the way in applying philosophy and ethics in a university of technology. Ethics is also pivotal in the collaborations between the university and medical centres. Samantha Copeland highlights this importance: “Ethical conflicts are unavoidable in the innovations arising from these collaborations. There is nothing wrong with this, because new developments always evoke new questions, and these questions do need to be addressed.” 

Who determines what we should do?

Technology brings changes to existing care concepts. “Take for example an app on your mobile phone that constantly gathers data, and can therefore preventively contribute to keeping you healthy. This makes healthcare very up-close and personal. How do such technologies change our ideas about health, care and lifestyle? But also, how do we handle all the data? How do we share them responsibly with care providers and researchers? And if the algorithm in an app determines how we should act, do both the patient and the care provider understand exactly what will happen? These are questions that researchers need to ask themselves as soon as possible, and must be kept in mind throughout the entire development process.”
 

Samantha Copeland plays a central role at TU Delft in addressing ethics in medical-technological research programmes. “With my team, we help research groups to identify and address ethical issues. Medical research has a tradition of much debate on ethics, which has led to a focus on protocols and procedures. With the rise of technological innovations in the medical field, further ethical considerations need to be developed. We aim to involve care providers and patients, because if you want to implement sustainable innovation in healthcare, you need to involve all relevant stakeholders in your research. It is here where the element of ethics can help most.”

Instrument in our toolbox

At present, ethics tends to be a top-down process, arranged through rules and checks. “We want ethics to become an integral part of the innovation process right from the start. No longer an imposed checklist, but an instrument in the researcher's toolbox. When used well, ethics creates an environment in which people enter into thoughtful dialogue without necessarily having to arrive at an immediate solution. As such, the purpose is not so much a go/no go decision, but a way of looking at the issue differently and improving your perspective - to help researchers place their target group at the centre of their research and to work towards sustainable impact in the long term. Designing ethics as an instrument offers new opportunities and possibilities.”