Dr Mark Howard

BA (Hons) (Monash), PhD (Monash)

Mark, an Early Career Researcher and Research Fellow with the Philosophy Department at Monash University, spent 2019-2021 working with an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in the research field of Ethics, Policy and Public Engagement. During this time his work focused on identifying the implications of new medical diagnostic systems for access to, and quality of, health care. He has established an exceptional record writing on technology and society, and his current research program, encompassing both theoretical and empirical ethics, focuses on the social impacts of automating technology in healthcare diagnostics and treatment planning.

As an educator, Dr Howard specialises in social and political philosophy, applied ethics, and social informatics.  Of interest are the effects of transformative/disruptive technology on societal wellbeing. This includes considering the relevant sociotechnical systems and normative structures that impact on the design, deployment and use of hardware and software and how this contributes to social and political outcomes.

Dr Howard’s applied ethics expertise extends to cover empirical ethics, and he is currently leading two qualitative studies (with a third commencing mid 2023) looking at human factor challenges relating to the implementation of machine learning-based clinical decision support (MLCDS) systems.