Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 29, 2020
Date Accepted: Aug 11, 2020
Ethical challenges and opportunities associated with the ability to perform medical screening from interactions with search engines
ABSTRACT
Recent research has shown the efficacy of screening for serious medical conditions from data collected while people interact with online services. Specifically, queries to search engines and the interactions with them were shown to be advantageous for screening to a range of conditions including diabetes, several forms of cancer, eating disorders, and depression. These screening abilities offer unique advantages in that they can serve a broad strata of society, including people in underserved populations and in countries with worst access to medical services. However, these advantages need to be balanced against the potential harm to privacy, autonomy, and non-maleficence, which are recognized as the cornerstones of ethical medical care. Here we discuss these opportunities and challenges, both when collecting data to develop online screening services and when deploying them. We offer several solutions which balance the advantages of these services with the ethical challenges they pose.
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