Dr Mark Howard

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

Mark, a Mid 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 looking at human factor challenges relating to the implementation of machine learning-based clinician decision support (MLCDS) systems.

Mark is also a rsearch fellow with the School of Translational Medicine, working as an embedded ethicist with the PERSONAL RCT, lead by Professor Patrick Kwan.

Project Title: Ethical Impact Assessment of Applying a Machine Learning Model for Medication Selection in Adults with Newly Diagnosed Epilepsy

The aim of the ethics study is to perform an ethical impact assessment alongside the PERSONAL RCT to achieve detailed understandings about ethical issues and human factors challenges with ML-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools for epilepsy treatment planning. The focus of Dr Howard is on the ethical and social issues that might promote or hinder the uptake of the machine learning model if it proves successful, while also highlighting key policies, guidelines and ethical design choices to help the team achieve best practice regarding equity and quality of care.

Using a participatory research design alongside an ethical impact assessment, Dr Howard will examine stakeholder (people with epilepsy and health professionals) attitudes, values, beliefs, goals, concerns, and perceptions about ML-based CDS tools for people with epilepsy. This approach will ensure project outputs are acceptable, feasible and relevant to the epilepsy community and that ethical and social implications are foregrounded.