Addressing Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) in Unregulated Health Research Using Mobile Devices (MobileELSI)
To date, there has been very little study of the ethical and legal issues surrounding unregulated health research performed by "citizen scientists." A three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable a team of 30 researchers from leading research institutions, health technology developers, and patient advocates to consider a wide range of issues, including the various types of mobile health research platforms, the potential applicability of various federal and state laws regulating research, possible models of self-regulation, and specific measures from online consent to integrating privacy protection in health apps.