Ethical and Legal Implications of Data Sharing in SaaS Laboratory Management Systems

Abstract

Over the years, the use of Software as a Service (SaaS) in a laboratory information management system has transformed sharing and management in the latter system. Such a transformation, however, brings along complex ethical and legal challenges for which scrutiny is supposed to be considered. Implication for adopting SaaS platforms includes fundamental concern about data privacy, security, and the overall integrity of scientific research. The paper systematically analyses ethical and legal implications associated with data sharing through SaaS platforms in the management of laboratories. This thus revolves around the understanding of how these systems can handle key aspects such as data ownership, respect for privacy, and compliance with international laws, and the resultant effects these would have on respective stakeholders across the scientific community. We, in this approach, have reviewed a wide range of literature, including fine details of case studies and views by experts, in light of current practices and challenges within SaaS-based laboratory management. We incorporate all these methods within the research to provide an integral view of the multidimensional ethical and legal landscaping, therefore delivering an approach with both depth and context to the analysis. It was mainly, regarding informed consent, and a very complex legal challenge emphasized in this study for compliance with GDPR, along with data confidentiality, respectively, for compliance with HIPAA. The study focused on the non-existence or lack of uniformity of regulatory frameworks that can provide for the special characteristics of SaaS data management and cross-border data flows.