RADIC Handbook - 7. Ethics, security, regulative framework
This chapter describes the legislative framework relating to Digital Rehabilitation in East Africa. The relevant aspects that are covered include ethics, policies and regulations, as well as issues of data security.
In brief, ethics is a branch of philosophy that describes moral principles and values. In the context of Digital Rehabilitation, ethical principles are applied in the design, development, evaluation, implementation, and provision of Digital Rehabilitation solutions. Regulations encompass the legal framework and guidelines set forth by governmental and regulatory bodies to safeguard the privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of data. Legislation forms the legal framework enacted by governing bodies to regulate the handling, processing, storage, and protection of data. Data security refers to the practice of protecting digital data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction by implementing measures and safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data throughout its life cycle.
Topics of this chapter include the following:
After you have gone through the chapter, you can do the following exercises:
Exercise
Exercise 1.
Reflect on Digital Rehabilitation practices that you may have some experience with either as a professional and/or as a client. Based on your reflections, what ethical aspects must be taken into consideration when designing Digital Rehabilitation services? Write down for yourself at least three practical examples of problems that could arise if ethical principles are not considered when introducing and using Digital Rehabilitation services. After that, think how these problems could have been avoided or addressed.
Exercise 2.
Find out what are the national legislation and regulations related to data protection and privacy in the health or social sector in your own country. How do they influence the implementation and use of Digital Rehabilitation? In what way is the legislation and regulations related to ethical aspects?
Exercise 3.
Think of what kind of measures you as a rehabilitation professional and a civilian could do to ensure secure cyber environment and robust data protection?
Summary
- The application of ethical principles is crucial in the design, development, evaluation, implementation, and provision of Digital Rehabilitation technologies and services. Ignoring ethical aspects can lead to unintended risks for clients.
- The five key ethical principles that can be applied in Digital Rehabilitation are: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and professional-client relationship. These principles address concerns such as autonomy in decision-making, doing good for individuals, preventing harm, ensuring fairness in technology access, and maintaining the professional-client relationship in the digital context.
- The implementation of Digital Rehabilitation in the East African region is governed by country-specific legal frameworks, with each member state adhering to data protection recommendations aligned with global best practices. Key laws include Kenya's Data Protection Act 2019, Rwanda's NCSA law 2021, and Tanzania's Personal Data Protection Act 2022.
- The policies and regulations emphasize adherence to key principles of data protection, such as lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality, mirroring the core tenets of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These principles guide the collection, processing, and storage of personal data, ensuring the protection of individual privacy and the security of data against unauthorized access or loss.
- Understanding the layers of cyberspace is crucial when we want to provide safe and good quality Digital Rehabilitation services. Weak layers can be vulnerable to cyber threats.
- Data protection involves safeguarding personal information. Its importance in Digital Rehabilitation stems from the sensitivity of data and the potential consequences of breaches on individuals' privacy, highlighting the necessity for robust data protection measures in Digital rehabilitation practices.