Metamedica

The METAMEDICA platform is aimed at facilitating interdisciplinary academic research and integrated education in health law, health privacy law and medical ethics. METAMEDICA aims to support patients, clinicians, policy makers, legal scholars, ethicists, lawyers and other stakeholders confronted with medical innovation and role changes in healthcare, with the proliferation of health related data and with new models to process and protect these data.

Key scientific and digital developments lead to role-changes in healthcare, the proliferation of health-related data and new data protection and research data management frameworks. In view of these evolutions, the Metamedica Platform conducts and facilitates interdisciplinary academic research and provides integrated education in health privacy, health law and biomedical ethics relevant for patients, clinicians, policy makers, lawyers, ethicists, and other stakeholders. Particular topics of interest include predictive genetic research, precision medicine, trustworthy AI, big data, and electronic health records.

The three steering members represent three faculties at Ghent University. Tom Goffin, associate professor in Health Law, represents the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Griet Verhenneman, assistant professor in Health Privacy Law represents the Faculty of Law and Criminology and Heidi Mertes, associate professor in Medical Ethics represents the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.

They were recently joined by several PhD students and a postdoctoral researcher. You can meet them here.

On February 6th 2020 the METAMEDICA platform was officially launched. You can find pictures of our opening symposium here.

Upcoming events

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 Erik Laes (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).