Ethics & Engineering: Working Together on Novel Medical Device Development

Abstract: Our multidisciplinary team has a unique opportunity to pursue novel medical device development for the treatment of obesity and diabetes alongside an investigation of the accompanying ethical, legal, and social implications of this work. In our panel discussion, we will introduce the medical and public health issues at hand, describe ways that ethics is integrated into the design of the devices and the advances in biology and engineering taking place in the laboratory, and discuss findings from interviewing experts in engineering, clinical trials, ethics and regulation, and medicine. We aim to work together to ensure fundamental principles of bioethics are considered early in the design process and brought forward into the clinical trial phase of this project and beyond. The primary goal of our panel is to share ways to integrate empirical bioethics research findings into device development, and we plan to share strategies that other multidisciplinary teams can apply when designing ethically-conscious novel medical devices.

Keywords: medical devices, novel technology, multidisciplinary team science