‘Prospecting responsible technology paths: Management options for an appropriate societal embedding of medical neuroimaging’

Abstract

Responsible innovation implies an aligment of what developers and societal actors perceive to be the problems and purposes of new technologies. With this, the challenge is to prospectively identify those potential concerns and (systemic) barriers that might hamper the development and embedding of innovation. We address this challenge by contextualising different visions of medical neuroimaging, which we identified via interviews and focus groups. We show that different visions result in different desirable technology paths, each with specific concerns and barriers. Concerns include medicalisation and the burden of knowing a predisposition. Barriers comprise: scientific unknowns, technical impossibilities, disciplinary boundaries, and the focus on disease categories and cure in research and health practice. Proposed strategies to overcome the barriers include: different research incentives, training of scientists and health professionals, and developing person-centred health centres. We conclude with implications for the responsible management of medical neuroimaging, in which shared visions and mutual learning are key elements.