Ethical implications of digital public health

Abstract

Digital technologies in public health have the potential to improve health promotion and disease prevention by the efficient registration, storage, and processing of large amounts of health data. Digital public health also raises – like other technological developments – several ethical issues, which are discussed in this article. A fundamental question in the ethical evaluation of digital public health interventions concerns the goal of the intervention: An intervention should serve the established goals of public health and not financial interests, to realize potential health benefits for the population. In addition, equity issues are especially relevant, because digital public health may reduce or increase health inequalities in the population. Furthermore, the protection of privacy and potentially sensitive health data are relevant. As digital public health applications vary considerably, each application has to be assessed individually regarding its ethical implications. This article therefore presents a normative framework and a methodological approach for the ethical evaluation of digital public health applications. By developing ethically justified recommendations for the design and use of digital public health applications, the ethical evaluation can contribute to an ethically justified practice of digital public health.