Nicole Martinez-Martin received her JD from Harvard Law School and her doctorate in social sciences, with a focus on comparative development and medical anthropology, from the University of Chicago. Her recent work in bioethics and neuroethics examines the ethics of artificial intelligence and digital health technologies, including digital phenotyping and computer vision, for medical and behavioral applications.
How can digital technology be used in mental health? What are its advantages?
There has been considerable interest in using digital technology to improve diagnosis, connect more people with mental-health care, and lower costs. Digital tools, including artificial-intelligence applications, are strong at pattern recognition. This has generated enthusiasm for collecting research data and applying AI to improve diagnosis, especially given long-standing questions about the validity of psychiatric diagnostic categories and the lack of biomarkers for psychiatric disorders.
Because so many people have smartphones and internet access, and because digital technology can reach people in daily life without requiring a visit to a laboratory or doctor’s office, there is also hope that it can improve access and care.
Does digital technology present unique ethical challenges in health care? Why?
Many of the same qualities that could improve care and access also create ethical challenges. Gathering data from people as they go about their daily lives raises concerns about privacy and surveillance, particularly because existing privacy law remains inadequate to protect people from secondary uses of their data.
Digital technology may improve access for some people while leaving others behind, creating equity concerns. There is also substantial work to be done to evaluate the quality of care people receive through digital health.