The pervasiveness of information and communication technologies is changing medical and public health research landscapes at an unprecedented rate, by promoting massive and dynamic health data collection and sharing among different stakeholders involved in the healthcare sector.  These activities fall under the realm of so-called big data, and have the potential to make healthcare systems smarter by incorporating fragmented data from a myriad of sources into more meaningful units. These would allow the implementation of better cost-effective individualized health services and policies by eliminating the current “one-size-fits-all” approach while reducing under- and over-use of health services.  Nonetheless, such endeavor faces numerous challenges (e.g. technical, ethical, legal challenges, etc.), which need to be addressed carefully. For instance, what are the barriers to health data collection and sharing? Is data harmonization the way forward? Is our current anthropocentric approach to ethics adapted to these technology-driven fields? What are the limitations to informed consent and data protection? Is the legislative oversight adjusted or outdated?

This fall’s Contemporary Debates Seminar will thus explore these factors influencing health data collection and sharing in the big data era, discuss the ethics of precision medicine and digital disease surveillance, and cover the interlinked roles of digital ethics, governance and regulation in enhancing health system efficiency. In these eight interactive sessions, participants will attend presentations from leading national and international experts in the field and they will be invited to discuss these ethical issues at the end of each session.