EPSRC healthcare strategy: The only way is ethics

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has urged researchers to consider the ethics of their proposed projects under its healthcare technologies theme.

In a strategy for healthcare technologies published on 13 March, the EPSRC outlines four challenges.

• Developing future therapies, which will consider what novel therapies might be developed by 2050
  
• Frontiers of physical intervention, which aims to achieve high-precision, low-invasiveness surgical techniques
  
• Optimising treatment, which seeks improvements to diagnosis, prognoses and real-time, evidence-based decision-making
  
• Transforming community health and care, which aims to facilitate timely interventions and the self-management of health

The strategy also comes with a toolkit detailing topics for researchers to consider when making their applications. The toolkit recommends that researchers develop a thorough understanding of the ethical requirements of their work, as well as the timescale for approval processes.