Are People Ready to Report Digital Health Ethical Issues in Order to Contribute to Their Resolution?

Abstract

Although guaranteed by the GDPR, transparency of health data processing may not be fully respected, leading citizens to mistrust eHealth and discard digital health services. Identifying and safeguarding ethics in eHealth services is thus important to promote their development. We conducted a survey to assess the extent of ethical issues induced by the use of digital health services, understand the efforts citizens would be willing to accept for reporting such issues, and evaluate citizens' expectations regarding this reporting. Among 200 respondents, 36% reported having encountered ethical issues with the processing of their health data or with digital health services being poorly inclusive. Faced to ethical issues when using a digital health service, 49% of respondents were rather or very angry, and 33% felt rather or very dependent. Most respondents were ready to report digital health ethical issues if there is a feedback for each report.