JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The development of new biomedical technologies is accelerating at an unprecedented speed. These new technologies will undoubtedly bring solutions to long-standing problems and health conditions. However, they will likely also have a shadow side in the form of unintended effects or ethical implications accompanying them. It may be presumed that the research behind new technologies has been evaluated from an ethical perspective; however, the evidence that this has been done is scant.

Objective:

The objective of this study is to gain an understanding, if and how PhD dissertations focused on health technologies describe actual or possible ethical issues resulting from their research.

Methods:

The purpose of scoping reviews is to map a topic in the literature comprehensively and systematically to identify gaps in the literature or identify key evidence. The search strategy for this protocol will include electronic databases including ProQuest, Medline/Pubmed, Diva, SwePub and LIBRIS. Searches will be limited to PhD dissertations published in the US and Sweden in the last ten years. The study will be mapped in five stages: 1) identifying the research question, 2) identifying relevant studies, 3) study selection, 4) retrieving and charting the data, and 5) collating, summarizing and reporting the results.

Results:

The findings of this study will indicate if and how researchers, PhD students and their supervisors, are considering ethics in their studies, including both research ethics and the ethical implications of their work. The findings can guide researchers in determining gaps and shortcomings in current doctoral education and offer a foundation to adjusting doctoral research education.

Conclusions:

In a society where technology and research are advancing at speeds unknown to us before, we need to find new and more efficient ways to consider ethical issues and address them in a timelier manner. This study will offer an understanding of how ethics is currently being integrated into US and Swedish PhD dissertations and inform the future direction of ethics education at a doctoral level.