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2 June 2025 – Citizen involvement in health tech and the role of ethical principles-based frameworks
Where: Online
When: 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
Description: Today, it is impossible to think of health care or research without the use of digital technology and AI-based tools – all of which rely on the use and re-use of the personal data of citizens and patients. The latest proliferation of EU laws stemming the European Data Strategy has led to a complex legal framework to comply with (as developer) and rely on (as citizen). The promise of new policy initiatives is to make more data available for (re)use, while empowering citizens with respect to the control over their personal data. In this respect, citizen involvement is crucial but many questions as regards its operationalization remain open. Ethical principles-based frameworks (such as the Belgian 8 caring technology principles) promise to ensure a central place for the user in the design and development of new technologies.An interdisciplinary and international panel, including Stefan Gijssels (chair of the Patient Expert Center), Dr. Magdalena Eitenberger (social sciences, University of Vienna), Prof. Tom Braekeleirs (digital medical technology, Ghent University), Gauthier Chassang (law, French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and Dr. Elisabeth Honinx (R&D Data-Driven Healthcare innovation, VITO) will explore citizen involvement in health tech development and the role ethical principles-based frameworks could play to foster it (moderation by Dr. Teodora Lalova-Spinks, Ghent University).
18 June 2025 – AI in Healthcare: Bridging Technology and Humanity – AI in Healthcare: From Data Management to Legal Compliance
Where: De Krook, Ghent
When: 1.30 p.m. – 4.30 p.m.
Description: During this session we will address the intersection of AI-technology and human factors in healthcare. This session aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the technical and legal considerations essential for the successful integration of AI in healthcare.
20 June 2025 – Dare to think about health tech innovation
Where: Event Center at the Belgian Pavilion, World Expo, Osaka
When: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Description: At Ghent University and Ghent University Hospital, we believe in responsible innovation. We not only connect engineers, AI experts and health care professionals to develop high–level health technology, we also stimulate research into the ethical, legal and social implications of these innovations. By uniting expertise in health law, medical ethics, psychology, communication sciences and many other disciplines, we ensure societal impacts are studied before, during and after the implementation of health technologies. This event will illustrate this cross-disciplinary approach by highlighting key aspects such as medical ethics and the impact of AI on healthcare roles and decision-making.
18 September 2025 – The European Health Data Space – Challenges, difficulties and opportunities
Where: to be determined
When: 5 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
Description: Since the approval of the European Health Data Space Regulation, experts have examined the challenges, difficulties, and opportunities it creates for the European Healthcare sector. Several of these experts will take the stand during this symposium.
Info & Registration
Past Metamedica-events
11 March 2025 – Whose Knowledge Counts? Exploring Epistemic Injustice in Medical AI
Description: Who is the most credible source of personal medical information—the patient sharing their personal experience or the medical AI system fed with digital metrics and parameters? And whose advice should a patient follow—that of the physician who knows them personally or that of an automated AI system trained on more data than their doctor? Could AI systems in medical decision-making undermine the credibility of both patients and physicians? Do such systems impair understanding and fundamental communication practices between patients and physicians?
In this lecture, we invited Giorgia Pozzi (TU Delft), who addressed these questions through the concept of epistemic injustice. This concept has inaugurated a new research area in AI ethics and medicine that seeks to identify epistemically unjust ways of conceiving illness, treating individuals, and allocating healthcare.
After Pozzi’s introductory lecture, an interdisciplinary panel of scholars, including Jonathan Adams (ethics), Veronique Hoste (natural language processing) and Sofia Palmieri (law), exchanged ideas about AI in the healthcare landscape and the relevance of epistemic injustice (moderation by Heidi Mertes).
19 november 2025: Van Dokter Google naar Dokter GPT – De rol van (generatieve) AI in de patiënt-artsrelatie (Dutch)
Beschrijving: Op 19 november 2024 organiseerde Metamedica met ondersteuning van de Ghent Health Academy for Lifelong Learning, GHALL, een debatavond waarbij Heidi Mertes in gesprek ging met Peter Pype (huisarts), Seppe Segers (ethicus), Tom Goffin (gezondheidsjurist) én het publiek over hoe de intrede van AI in de gezondheidszorg de patiënt-arts relatie verandert.
De introductie van AI in de gezondheidszorg lijkt onvermijdelijk gezien het enorme potentieel om de zorg te verbeteren en hopelijk ook efficiënter te maken. Tegelijk moeten we de nodige zorgvuldigheid aan de dag leggen zodat het vertrouwen van de patiënt in de medische zorgverlener niet afbrokkelt. Daarvoor hebben we interdisciplinaire samenwerking nodig, zodat vooruitgang in geneeskunde en IT hand in hand kan gaan met recht en ethiek.