RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Ethical issues in computational pathology
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 278
OP 284
DO 10.1136/medethics-2020-107024
VO 48
IS 4
A1 Sorell, Tom
A1 Rajpoot, Nasir
A1 Verrill, Clare
YR 2022
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/48/4/278.abstract
AB This paper explores ethical issues raised by whole slide image-based computational pathology. After briefly giving examples drawn from some recent literature of advances in this field, we consider some ethical problems it might be thought to pose. These arise from (1) the tension between artificial intelligence (AI) research—with its hunger for more and more data—and the default preference in data ethics and data protection law for the minimisation of personal data collection and processing; (2) the fact that computational pathology lends itself to kinds of data fusion that go against data ethics norms and some norms of biobanking; (3) the fact that AI methods are esoteric and produce results that are sometimes unexplainable (the so-called ‘black box’problem) and (4) the fact that computational pathology is particularly dependent on scanning technology manufacturers with interests of their own in profit-making from data collection. We shall suggest that most of these issues are resolvable.