Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
DOI
10.1176/appi.prcp.20200029
Publication Title
Psychiatric Research & Clinical Practice
Volume
3
Issue
2
Pages
57-66
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Digital monitoring technologies (e.g., smart-phones and wearable devices) provide unprecedented opportunities to study potentially harmful behaviors such as suicide, violence, and alcohol/substance use in real-time. The use of these new technologies has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, prediction, and prevention of these behaviors. However, such technologies also introduce myriad ethical and safety concerns, such as deciding when and how to intervene if a participant's responses indicate elevated risk during the study?
METHODS: We used a modified Delphi process to develop a consensus among a diverse panel of experts on the ethical and safety practices for conducting digital monitoring studies with those at risk for suicide and related behaviors. Twenty-four experts including scientists, clinicians, ethicists, legal experts, and those with lived experience provided input into an iterative, multi-stage survey, and discussion process.
RESULTS: Consensus was reached on multiple aspects of such studies, including: inclusion criteria, informed consent elements, technical and safety procedures, data review practices during the study, responding to various levels of participant risk in real-time, and data and safety monitoring.
CONCLUSIONS: This consensus statement provides guidance for researchers, funding agencies, and institutional review boards regarding expert views on current best practices for conducting digital monitoring studies with those at risk for suicide-with relevance to the study of a range of other potentially harmful behaviors (e.g., alcohol/substance use and violence). This statement also highlights areas in which more data are needed before consensus can be reached regarding best ethical and safety practices for digital monitoring studies.
Original Publication Citation
Nock, M. K., Kleiman, E. M., Abraham, M. ... Siegel, G., Ordóñez, A. E., & Pearson, J. L. (2021) Consensus statement on ethical & safety practices for conducting digital monitoring studies with people at risk of suicide and related behaviors. Psychiatric Research & Clinical Practice, 3(2), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20200029
ORCID
0000-0003-2497-6000 (Glenn)
Repository Citation
Nock, Matthew K.; Kleiman, Evan M.; Abraham, Melissa; Bentley, Kate H.; Brent, David A.; Buonopane, Ralph J.; Castro-Ramirez, Franckie; Cha, Christine B.; Dempsey, Walter; Draper, John; Glenn, Catherine R.; Harkavy-Friedman, Jill; Hollander, Michael R.; Huffman, Jeffrey C.; Lee, Hye In S.; Millner, Alexander J.; Mou, David; Onnela, Jukka-Pekka; Picard, Rosalind W.; Quay, Heather M.; Rankin, Osiris; Sewards, Shannon; Torous, John; Wheelis, Joan; Whiteside, Ursula; Siegel, Galia; Ordóñez, Anna E.; and Pearson, Jane L., "Consensus Statement on Ethical & Safety Practices for Conducting Digital Monitoring Studies with People at Risk of Suicide and Related Behaviors" (2021). Psychology Faculty Publications. 120.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/psychology_fac_pubs/120
Included in
Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons, Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Health Information Technology Commons
Comments
Copyright © 2020 The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.