An Ethical Approach to Co-Designing Scalable Digital Health Interventions for Vulnerable Populations
Journal
Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2026-03
Author(s)
Abstract
Digital health interventions (DHIs) have expanded rapidly across prevention, care, and self-management, yet their development often excludes populations most affected by health inequities, including older adults, women (including people assigned female at birth), individuals with cognitive decline, and people with low socioeconomic status (SES). This paper proposes an Ethical Co-Design Framework that integrates principles from Ethics by Design, Value-Sensitive Design, and the Assessment List for Trustworthy AI. The framework outlines a continuous cycle of ethical framing, participatory engagement, evaluation and accountability, and iterative reflexivity, offering a practical method for embedding ethical reflection throughout the innovation lifecycle, to enhance DHI scalability. To illustrate its application, the paper presents two early-stage case studies: GRACE, a voice-based conversational agent for people with early dementia, and PreDiaTx, a GenAI-powered precision digital therape utic for type-2 diabetes prevention among women, older adults and low-SES groups. Across both cases, ethics emerges not as a constraint but as an enabler of inclusive, context-sensitive and trustworthy design. The paper argues that ethical co-design provides a replicable pathway for aligning DHI development with the needs and values of vulnerable populations and calls for organisational and policy structures that embed ethical co-design as a standard component of scalable digital health innovation.
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications
Volume
1
Start page
683
End page
690
Event Title
Workshop on Advancing Digital Women’s Health – Scale-IT-up 2026,
Event Location
Marbella, Spain
Event Date
2-4 March 2026
Subject(s)
Division(s)