Hospital systems are increasingly using data science, including artificial intelligence, to address complex problems in health care delivery and operations. Projects can range from performing quality improvement or research activities to assessing external AI and other potentially useful tools. Yet the attendant ethical issues -- including concerns about algorithmic bias, transparency, privacy and equity -- have challenged traditional models of research oversight and ethics engagement in the patient care setting.
What is distinctive about data ethics in the hospital context, and what are some practical steps that hospital systems can take to integrate ethics into their data science enterprise? At this consortium, we will be joined by a team from Seattle Children’s Hospital and its related 4-state network of specialty clinics that has confronted these issues and developed a model for data ethics. Speakers will share the evolution of the model, which arose from interest within the hospital’s data science community. Questions include:
What are some current ethical challenges arising in the use of data science at the hospital or health-system level?
What values should be of foremost concern in designing and evaluating data science projects and products in a hospital environment?
To what extent can ethical oversight of data science make use of traditional models in health care, such as Institutional Review Boards?
How can an organization build a culture of ethical awareness and accountability among data scientists and the clinicians and others who seek their services?
Presenters:
(1) Dwight Barry, PhD
Principal Data Scientist
Seattle Children’s Hospital
(2) Douglas Diekema, MD, MPH
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington
Director of Education, Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, Seattle Childrens Research Institute
(3) David Danks, PhD
Professor of Data Science & Philosophy, UC San Diego
(4) T. Eugene Day, DSc
Data Science Manager, Seattle Children’s Hospital
(5) Elizabeth Montague, MS
Manager, Surgical Services Analytics, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Moderator:
Charlotte H. Harrison, PhD, JD, MPH, HEC-C
Co-Chair, Organizational Ethics Consortium
Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
Immediate Past Hospital Ethicist and Director, Office of Ethics
Boston Children’s Hospital
Commentator:
Alex John London, PhD
Clara L. West Professor of Ethics and Philosophy
Director, Center for Ethics and Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
