Ethics and patient support

This week we met Patricia Saraux, doctor and director of the Nantes Mission Santé Publique (Nantes city hall - public health department). During this interview we discussed different topics from improving the health of the residents to full treatments, or improving the everyday environment by thinking of the integration of patients as stakeholders and citizens. We raised the subject of the new Nantes hospital and the role the city hall will play in the near future. Mrs Saraux explained that the city hall does not have any authority to intervene in political or public health decisions taken for the future hospital. Therefore, we did not devote much time to questions related to the economic or political issues of our project. However, we discussed at more length ethical considerations and patient support. Indeed, in the context of our project in particular, ideas on how to involve and engage the patient are essential. This is why it is necessary to work on ways to have the patient adhere to this project for his/her health. To build a bond of trust while respecting the patient's will is essential. We must be careful to retain the individual's consent, and this is partly done through therapeutic education in which the patient becomes fully aware of the technologies and the mode of follow-up of his/her illness. It must be placed at the heart of the treatment plan so that it is fully effective. This can be done, among other things, by limiting the technological tools at his/her disposal, by replacing them with more dialogue and human tracking, for example. According to Patricia Saraux, the question of the patient's choice to interrupt or continue his treatment in full knowledge of the facts, is the very foundation of the ethical reflection linked to our project.

Regarding the progress of some of our deliverables: this week we put the problem into formal wording and built a detailed plan for the final report. We we also able to progress on the physical simulator by creating several sensors, a temperature sensor for example, as our Arduino hardware order arrived just after the vacation.