eHealth 360°. International Summit on eHealth, Budapest, Hungary, June 14-16, 2016, Revised Selected Papers

Research Article

Design Fictions: A Tool for Debating Societal, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Personal and Pervasive Health Systems

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-319-49655-9_48,
        author={Emmanuel Tsekleves and Andy Darby and Anna Whicher and Piotr Swiatek},
        title={Design Fictions: A Tool for Debating Societal, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Personal and Pervasive Health Systems},
        proceedings={eHealth 360°. International Summit on eHealth, Budapest, Hungary, June 14-16, 2016, Revised Selected Papers},
        proceedings_a={EHEALTH360},
        year={2017},
        month={1},
        keywords={Design fiction Speculative design Personal health systems Legal and ethics Pervasive healthcare},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-319-49655-9_48}
    }
    
  • Emmanuel Tsekleves
    Andy Darby
    Anna Whicher
    Piotr Swiatek
    Year: 2017
    Design Fictions: A Tool for Debating Societal, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Personal and Pervasive Health Systems
    EHEALTH360
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-49655-9_48
Emmanuel Tsekleves1,*, Andy Darby1,*, Anna Whicher2,*, Piotr Swiatek2,*
  • 1: Lancaster University
  • 2: Cardiff Metropolitan University
*Contact email: e.tsekleves@lancaster.ac.uk, a.darby@lancaster.ac.uk, awhicher@cardiffmet.ac.uk, pswiatek@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Abstract

The potential benefits offered by health-related technologies are counterpoised by the societal, legal and ethical challenges concomitant with the pervasive monitoring of people necessitated by such technological interventions. Through the ProtoPolicy research project we explored the production and use of design fictions as a tool for debating the societal, legal and ethical dimensions of personal health systems. Two design fictions were co-created and tested in a series of design workshops with community groups based in Lancashire and Cornwall, UK. A thematic analysis of a debate among older people from the Lancaster group on the Smart Object Therapist design fiction highlighted societal and ethical issues relevant to personal health system design. We conclude that ethics like ‘usability’ may be usefully based on engagement with directly or indirectly implicated publics and should not be designed into innovation by experts alone.