BMBF Researchgroup - META - mHealth: Ethical aspects of mobile health technologies
- Project Leader: PD Dr. Verina Wild
- Affiliation: Institute of Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine
- Funding: 2018 to 2023
Apps on smartphones that guide people through sports; wristbands that count whether the wearer is moving enough - thanks to new technologies, it seems easier than ever to live a healthy life today. But what ethical questions are associated with this development? A new research group, headed by Dr. Verina Wild, a private lecturer at the Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at the LMU, is investigating this. "META - mHealth: Ethical, legal and social aspects in the technological age" is the name of the project, which will receive 2.1 million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the coming years.
Verina Wild is an expert in biomedical ethics and public health ethics, with a particular focus on questions of health justice. "With mobile technologies such as fitness apps, health is suddenly negotiated and offered outside the medical context," says Verina Wild. This is followed by many questions, such as on what ethical basis this happens, how much responsibility everyone has for their own health, who has sovereignty over personal data and whether access to these technologies is guaranteed for everyone at all.
The research group will investigate the ethical dimension of the topic in an interdisciplinary manner. Among other things, mobile health technologies will be analysed from philosophical, social science and legal perspectives, and perspectives from epidemiology, politics, the private sector and the world of users will also be included.
Source: LMU