Balancing Innovation & Ethics:

Thermal Camera Sensors for Hospitals - A Comprehensive White Paper on Privacy, Transparency, and Responsible Implementation

Situation:

Task:

Research & Analysis:

Deliverables:

The document discusses the development of the white paper for Company, focusing on ethical concerns and prior research related to thermal camera sensors in hospital settings with a focus on prioritizing user benefit over technological innovation.

Address predicted concerns regarding Company's technology and propose recommendations for its thermal camera sensor systems. Through foundational research in legal implications, user centered concerns, and realistic application within vulnerable spaces. 

This work aimed at accomplishing the challenge of addressing the predicted responses that would be elicited towards Company’s technology in order to mitigate this predicted concerns within the technology itself before it is deployed in the market.

The predicted concerns that were proposed before extensive research included:

(1) hackability of the technology

(2) the ability to maintain private data in storage

(3) the misconceptions that various stakeholders may have in regards to thermal cameras.

Conducted extensive research on ambient intelligence, thermal camera sensors, responsible innovation, GDPR data privacy, and hospital concerns to inform the white paper. Identified potential concerns, including technology hackability, private data storage, and stakeholder misconceptions about thermal cameras. Laid groundwork for future user interviews with various stakeholders within the space.

Developed white paper and bibliography within a living document discussing the research on Company's technology in hospital settings. The document remains incomplete due to ongoing shifts in project scope, serving as a comprehensive marker of the collected research.

Document recommends: 

  • Transparency in the product is required. This may be provided to stakeholders through a paper sheet informing the potential user of what the data is being used for, an understanding of privacy through thermal sensors, as well as the ability to opt out of these spaces. While this implementation does not fall on Company, it is important to address this concern and potential solution.  

  • Closed network data collection and storage. In addition, it is recommended that the system itself have an algorithmic method to ensure privacy within the data stored. By doing so, Company can eradicate the potential of privacy breaches in data, as the data itself is already anonymised.

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