Utrecht, 08-07-2024 – ONCOVALUE, a consortium of cancer hospitals and commercial companies that are working together to implement value-based oncology care, has installed its ethics advisory board. The board consists of respected leaders in their respective fields of expertise from a variety of European countries.
The ONCOVALUE research focuses on enabling and guiding cancer hospitals to collect, harmonize and analyze high-quality Real-World Data (RWD) in real-time. Members of the advisory board were therefore selected on expertise in areas like large-scale data protection, ethics of artificial intelligence and ethics of cancer management. The Ethics Advisory board will act as the supervisory authority on the ethics of the entire ONCOVALUE project. The board is tasked with providing detailed advice and guidance on all ethical matters.
The Ethics Advisory Board
The Ethics Advisory board consists of:
- Prof. Dr. Corrette Ploem, Professor in Law, Health Care Technology and Medicine
at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands - Prof. Dr. Luís Antunes, Full Professor, Department of Computer Science, University
of Porto, Portugal - Dr. Mónica Cano Abadía, Senior Scientist and Deputy Head, ELSI Services and
Research Department, BBMRI-ERIC (the European research infrastructure for
biobanking, based in Graz, Austria)
The Ethics Advisory board will be supported and led by Johanna Mattson, the ONCOVALUE Scientific & clinical lead from HUS, Helsinki University Hospital. ”Having an ethics advisory board with ample knowledge and experience in the field we are pioneering in, is crucial for the success of our research. We are committed to using digital systems, data and AI consciously and carefully so we welcome the boards combined knowledge and experience to ensure we meet ethical standards”, said Mattson.
On joining the board Prof. Dr. Corette Ploem said: ”Technology, such as used in ONCOVALUE, can be extremely useful to provide appropriate care in our current societies.
In my opinion, it is essential that professionals using digital systems and AI in research and clinical practice do so in a conscious and careful manner that ensures the trust of both patients and physicians.”
Prof. Luís Antunes: ”As a project working with sensitive data, privacy is of the utmost importance. Nevertheless, we should technically address the challenge of keeping the utility of the data for the purpose of the project while maintaining a high guarantee of privacy.”
Dr. Mónica Cano Abadía: “The presence of experts in ethical and societal issues of AI in medicine is crucial for projects like ONCOVALUE, so that potential issues (such as bias or discrimination) can be identified and tackled pro-actively. The integration of ethicists and social scientists in research consortia such as this is thus very valuable to advance the development and implementation of AI tools in a way that is conscious of possible risks, especially for vulnerable groups”.
About ONCOVALUE
ONCOVALUE is a consortium of cancer hospitals and commercial companies that are working together to implement value-based oncology care in Europe. The consortium aims to improve cancer care by enabling and guiding cancer clinics to collect, harmonize and analyze high-quality Real-World Data (RWD) in real-time by developing an AI-based framework for assessing real-life effectiveness of novel cancer therapies in real-time.
For questions, please contact:
Ilona de Bok
+31 (0)6-41432367
info@oncovalue.org
