Description

The ERC-funded project DIME, led by Prof Heidi Mertes (Ghent University), is glad to announce its closing conference: Disruption in healthcare and medical ethics: are we there yet?

Medical ethics has traditionally evolved alongside conventional medicine, but recent so-called “disruptive” innovations in healthcare, such as AI-driven diagnostics, digital twins and personalized genomics, raise pressing questions about whether existing ethical frameworks are still adequate. These innovations are often framed as promises of improving access to high-quality care while safeguarding patients against new risks. However, risks associated with those innovations extend beyond clinical outcomes to potential violations of deeply rooted concepts in medical ethics such as respect for patient autonomy, duty of care, privacy, solidarity, and justice. And what are we to think of the increasing emphasis on empowerment, trust and responsibility?

Over the past five years, the DIME project addressed these challenges with the objectives to (i) locate the most prominent ethical disruptions, (ii) provide arguments for and against adaptations to our medical ethics toolbox and (iii) critically analyse the shifting moral responsibilities in healthcare as a consequence of disruptive innovations.

The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers addressing issues related to the objectives of DIME in bioethics, medical ethics, and the philosophy of technology. In addition to contributions from current DIME members, the discussion will be enriched by our keynote speaker: Jeroen Hopster (Utrecht University), a leading expert on topics central to the conference theme.