Lipworth Wendy, Mason Paul H, Kerridge Ian, Ioannidis John P A
Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Medical Foundation Building (K25), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Haematology Department, Royal North Shore Hospital, Reserve Rd, St Leonards, NSW, 2065, Australia.
J Bioeth Inq. 2017 Dec;14(4):489-500. doi: 10.1007/s11673-017-9771-3. Epub 2017 Mar 20.
Biomedical innovation and translation are increasingly emphasizing research using "big data." The hope is that big data methods will both speed up research and make its results more applicable to "real-world" patients and health services. While big data research has been embraced by scientists, politicians, industry, and the public, numerous ethical, organizational, and technical/methodological concerns have also been raised. With respect to technical and methodological concerns, there is a view that these will be resolved through sophisticated information technologies, predictive algorithms, and data analysis techniques. While such advances will likely go some way towards resolving technical and methodological issues, we believe that the epistemological issues raised by big data research have important ethical implications and raise questions about the very possibility of big data research achieving its goals.
生物医学创新与转化越来越强调运用“大数据”进行研究。人们希望大数据方法既能加速研究进程，又能使研究结果更适用于“现实世界”的患者和医疗服务。虽然大数据研究已得到科学家、政治家、业界和公众的认可，但也引发了诸多伦理、组织以及技术/方法层面的担忧。关于技术和方法层面的担忧，有一种观点认为，这些问题将通过先进的信息技术、预测算法和数据分析技术得到解决。虽然这些进展可能在一定程度上解决技术和方法问题，但我们认为，大数据研究所引发的认识论问题具有重要的伦理意义，并对大数据研究实现其目标的可能性提出了质疑。
