The ethics of shared Covid-19 risks: an epistemological framework for ethical health technology assessment of risk in vaccine supply chain infrastructures

Abstract

This article addresses the topic of shared responsibilities in supply chains, with a specific focus on the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in e-health environments, and Industry 4.0 issues—concerning data security, privacy, reliability and management, data mining and knowledge exchange as well as health prevention. In this article, we critically review methodologies and guidelines that have been proposed to approach these ethical aspects in digital supply chain settings. The emerging framework presents new findings on how digital technologies affect vaccine shared supply chain systems. Through epistemological analysis, the article derives new insights for transparency and accountability of supply chain cyber risk from Internet of Things systems. This research devises a framework for ethical awareness, assessment, transparency and accountability of the emerging cyber risk from integrating IoT technologies on shared Covid-19 healthcare supply chain infrastructure.