ethics privacy

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have emerged as transformative technologies in optimizing laparoscopic surgery, offering innovative solutions to enhance surgical precision, efficiency, and safety. This editorial explores the potential role of AI/ML across the surgical continuum, including preoperative optimization, intraoperative assistance, and postoperative care. It outlines the benefits of laparoscopic surgery compared to traditional open procedures and identifies current challenges such as technical difficulty and human error...

The problematic use of social media has numerous negative impacts on individuals' daily lives, interpersonal relationships, physical and mental health, and more. Currently, there are few methods and tools to alleviate problematic social media, and their potential is yet to be fully realized. Emerging large language models (LLMs) are becoming increasingly popular for providing information and assistance to people and are being applied in many aspects of life. In mitigating problematic social media use, LLMs such as ChatGPT can play a positive role by serving as conversational partners and outlets for users, providing personalized information and resources, monitoring and intervening in problematic social media use, and more...

Digital technologies hold promise to modernize healthcare. Such opportunity should be leveraged also to address the needs of rapidly ageing populations. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the use of wearable devices for promoting healthy ageing. Previous work has assessed the prospects of digital technologies for health promotion and disease prevention in older adults. However, to our knowledge, ours is one of the first attempts to specifically address the use of wearables for healthy ageing, and to offer ethical insights for assessing the prospects of leveraging wearable devices in this context...

BACKGROUND: Midwife-led birth centres (MLBCs) are associated with reduced childbirth interventions, higher satisfaction rates, and improved birth outcomes. The evidence on quality of care in MLBCs from low and middle-income countries (LMIC) is limited. AIM: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of women and midwives regarding the quality of care in four MLBCs in Uganda. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted in four MLBCs in Uganda...

ChatGPT/GPT-4 is a conversational large language model (LLM) based on artificial intelligence (AI). The potential application of LLM as a virtual assistant for bariatric healthcare professionals in education and practice may be promising if relevant and valid issues are actively examined and addressed. In general medical terms, it is possible that AI models like ChatGPT/GPT-4 will be deeply integrated into medical scenarios, improving medical efficiency and quality, and allowing doctors more time to communicate with patients and implement personalized health management...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is frequently underdiagnosed due to its clinical and biological heterogeneity. Worldwide, many people face barriers to accessing accurate and timely diagnoses. Machine learning (ML) techniques have been utilized for early assessments and outcome prediction to address these challenges. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review to investigate if ML is a promising approach for PTSD diagnosis. In this review, statistical methods were employed to synthesize the outcomes of the included research and provide guidance on critical considerations for ML task implementation...

Advances in brain-brain interface technologies raise the possibility that two or more individuals could directly link their minds, sharing thoughts, emotions, and sensory experiences. This paper explores conceptual and ethical issues posed by such mind-merging technologies in the context of clinical neuroethics. Using hypothetical examples along a spectrum from loosely connected pairs to fully merged minds, the authors sketch out a range of factors relevant to identifying the degree of a merger. They then consider potential new harms like loss of identity, psychological domination, loss of mental privacy, and challenges for notions of autonomy and patient benefit when applied to merged minds...

The evolution of pathology from its rudimentary beginnings around 1700 BC to the present day has been marked by profound advancement in understanding and diagnosing diseases. This journey, from the earliest dissections to the modern era of histochemical analysis, sets the stage for the next transformative leap to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in pathology. Recent research highlights AI's significant potential to revolutionize healthcare within the next decade, with a particular impact on diagnostic processes...

Introduction Colorectal stomas are prevalent in surgical wards and demand careful medical attention, particularly in stoma management. Junior doctors play a vital role in this care, but their limited exposure and training may hinder their ability, impacting patient care. Given the dearth of literature, we aimed to assess junior doctors' stoma care knowledge and the efficacy of a specialized teaching course in boosting their confidence and skills. Methods The research, conducted at the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust in the UK, engaged 60 junior doctors, predominantly from Foundation Year 1 and Year 2, from August 2021 to December 2022...

This analysis explores the principal regulatory concerns linked to nanomedicines and gene vaccines, including the complexities involved and the perspectives on how to navigate them. In the realm of nanomedicines, ensuring the safety of nanomaterials is paramount due to their unique characteristics and potential interactions with biological systems. Regulatory bodies are actively formulating guidelines and standards to assess the safety and risks associated with nanomedicine products, emphasizing the need for standardized characterization techniques to accurately gauge their safety and effectiveness...

SUMMARY: The Covid-19 pandemic (Coronavirus) has created complex challenges for recipients of social services worldwide and for the social workers entrusted with assisting them. This article presents a study of the decision-making process of Israeli social workers when coping with ethical and legal dilemmas arising during the pandemic. METHOD: A qualitative self-administered survey was completed by 478 social workers who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes...

Cloud computing has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare and biomedical sciences, offering scalable, on-demand resources for managing vast amounts of data. This review explores the integration of cloud computing within these fields, highlighting its pivotal role in enhancing data management, security, and accessibility. We examine the application of cloud computing in various healthcare domains, including electronic medical records, telemedicine, and personalized patient care, as well as its impact on bioinformatics research, particularly in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics...

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent, protecting personal privacy is a critical ethical issue that must be addressed. This article explores the need for ethical AI systems that safeguard individual privacy while complying with ethical standards. By taking a multidisciplinary approach, the research examines innovative algorithmic techniques such as differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, federated learning, international regulatory frameworks, and ethical guidelines. The study concludes that these algorithms effectively enhance privacy protection while balancing the utility of AI with the need to protect personal data...

STUDY QUESTION: Can generative artificial intelligence (AI) models produce high-fidelity images of human blastocysts? SUMMARY ANSWER: Generative AI models exhibit the capability to generate high-fidelity human blastocyst images, thereby providing substantial training datasets crucial for the development of robust AI models. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: The integration of AI into IVF procedures holds the potential to enhance objectivity and automate embryo selection for transfer...

INTRODUCTION: Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have rapidly brought the application of artificial intelligence into widespread use. Among many different use cases for text generation and processing, one application is the extraction of data from existing documents and conversations for simplified and automated form-filling. OBJECTIVE: In the field of quality assurance and documentation of cancer diseases, there is currently a significant workload involved in transferring data under various aspects into slightly varying formats and applying interpretations such as the TNM classification of tumours...

This report describes a comprehensive framework for applying artificial intelligence (AI) in veterinary medicine. Our framework draws on existing research on AI implementation in human medicine and addresses the challenges of limited technology expertise and the need for scalability. The critical components of this framework include assembling a diverse team of experts in AI, promoting a foundational understanding of AI among veterinary professionals, identifying relevant use cases and objectives, ensuring data quality and availability, creating an effective implementation plan, providing team training, fostering collaboration, considering ethical and legal obligations, integrating AI into existing workflows, monitoring and evaluating performance, managing change effectively, and staying up-to-date with technological advancements...

Advances in biomedical data science and artificial intelligence (AI) are profoundly changing the landscape of healthcare. This article reviews the ethical issues that arise with the development of AI technologies, including threats to privacy, data security, consent, and justice, as they relate to donors of tissue and data. It also considers broader societal obligations, including the importance of assessing the unintended consequences of AI research in biomedicine. In addition, this article highlights the challenge of rapid AI development against the backdrop of disparate regulatory frameworks, calling for a global approach to address concerns around data misuse, unintended surveillance, and the equitable distribution of AI's benefits and burdens...

OBJECTIVE: To provide a brief overview of artificial intelligence (AI) application within the field of eating disorders (EDs) and propose focused solutions for research. METHOD: An overview and summary of AI application pertinent to EDs with focus on AI's ability to address issues relating to data sharing and pooling (and associated privacy concerns), data augmentation, as well as bias within datasets is provided. RESULTS: In addition to clinical applications, AI can utilize useful tools to help combat commonly encountered challenges in ED research, including issues relating to low prevalence of specific subpopulations of patients, small overall sample sizes, and bias within datasets...

OBJECTIVES: We introduce the Bitemporal Lens Model, a comprehensive methodology for chronic disease prevention using digital biomarkers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Bitemporal Lens Model integrates the change-point model, focusing on critical disease-specific parameters, and the recurrent-pattern model, emphasizing lifestyle and behavioral patterns, for early risk identification. RESULTS: By incorporating both the change-point and recurrent-pattern models, the Bitemporal Lens Model offers a comprehensive approach to preventive healthcare, enabling a more nuanced understanding of individual health trajectories, demonstrated through its application in cardiovascular disease prevention...

This research paper explores the impact of social media-based interventions on adolescent reproductive health education, acknowledging the digital residency of today's youth. Utilizing a Solomon Four Group Design, the study assesses the efficacy of tailored interventions on various digital platforms, emphasizing the value, impact, and relevance of innovative educational approaches, particularly those employed by social media. The paper highlights adolescents' pervasive presence on social media, including platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as integral components of their online experiences...