Bak Marieke A R, Horbach Daan, Buyx Alena, McLennan Stuart
Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine, Department of Preclinical Medicine, TUM School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Department of Ethics, Law and Humanities, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Feb 27;8(1):129. doi: 10.1038/s41746-025-01515-3.
Partnerships between public and private organizations in digital health can promote more accessible, affordable, and high-quality care, but they also raise ethical and governance challenges. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science, identifying 46 studies examining ethical aspects of digital health public-private partnerships (PPPs). Three key themes emerged: data privacy and consent, ensuring public benefit and access, and good governance and demonstrating trustworthiness. We provide recommendations for each theme. To foster responsible innovation, we conclude that early and contextual operationalisation of ethics guidelines in PPPs is necessary to balance respect for fundamental values with the pursuit of impactful innovation. If PPPs become more successful as a result, this contributes to reducing the research waste of failed collaborations. Further research should clarify the scope of PPPs and definition of 'public benefit', and we call for critical study on the 'economization' of digital health promoted by public and private sector organizations.
数字健康领域公私组织之间的合作关系能够促进医疗服务更易获取、价格更可承受且质量更高，但同时也带来了伦理和治理方面的挑战。我们检索了PubMed、EMBASE和科学网，识别出46项研究数字健康公私伙伴关系（PPPs）伦理方面的研究。出现了三个关键主题：数据隐私与同意、确保公共利益与可及性，以及良好治理与展现可信度。我们针对每个主题提供了建议。为促进负责任的创新，我们得出结论，公私伙伴关系中伦理准则的早期及情境化实施对于在尊重基本价值观与追求有影响力的创新之间取得平衡是必要的。如果公私伙伴关系因此变得更加成功，这将有助于减少失败合作中的研究浪费。进一步的研究应阐明公私伙伴关系的范围以及“公共利益”的定义，我们呼吁对公共和私营部门组织推动的数字健康“经济化”进行批判性研究。
