Abstract
The approach to innovations known as Responsible research and innovation (RRI) aims to move the innovation system towards creating products that strive to realize social values along with economic benefits. This paper discusses the systematic assessment of assistive technologies in order for them to meet the aims expressed in RRI. A central issue in the discussion is how to facilitate an integration of insights from the discourse on RRI with more established assessment approaches such as Health Technology Assessment (HTA). Based on the literature on existing socio-ethical assessment tools, I investigate how these tools can be combined with HTA and how they can add perspectives from RRI that might increase the socio-ethical value of assistive technologies. Through a discussion on how to understand RRI, HTA, assessment and integration, I suggest a list of four possible approaches that have the potential to be applied as assessment approaches that integrate insights from RRI and HTA. These are then evaluated on their ability to address issues that have emerged from a literature review on RRI and assistive technologies, on empirical studies in this technology field and on their product focus. In conclusion, I argue that the Ethical Impact Assessment, the Socratic approach, the Ethical Matrix, and the HTA Core Model seem to be the most promising methodologies, but that these need adjustments to cover substantive themes from RRI.
 Keywords: energy scenarios, justice, future generations, capabilities approach
Highlights
Worldwide we see a proliferation of assistive technologies in hospitals, institutions and homes, ranging from high-tech robots to low-tech analogue alarms
This paper argues that Ethical Impact Assessment (ETIA) (Wright 2011),1 the Socratic approach (Hofmann 2005b; Hofmann, Droste, Oortwijn, Cleemput, & Sacchini 2014), the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Core Model (Lampe et al 2009), and the Ethical Matrix (Kaiser & Forsberg 2001) are relevant candidates for assessing assistive technologies in line with HTA and the central thinking in research and innovation (RRI)
In order for ETIA, the Ethical Matrix and the HTA core model to be fully developed into RRI tools, they need to be adapted to include uncertainties and ignorance
Summary
Worldwide we see a proliferation of assistive technologies in hospitals, institutions and homes, ranging from high-tech robots to low-tech analogue alarms. The following criteria are central in analyzing how to address the quality dimension of ethical assessment approaches: comprehensiveness and a broad inclusion of values, user-friendliness and transparency (Beekman et al 2006; Forsberg, Shelley-Egan, Thorstensen, Landeweerd, & Hofmann 2017; Kaiser, Millar, Thorstensen, & Tomkins 2007). In practical terms, this translates to an assessment that includes a broad range of relevant values and other ethical aspects. In terms of the process criteria of governance and public engagement from the European Commission’s six “keys,” I believe that governance is covered by distribution of risks and benefits and distribution of responsibilities, while public engagement is covered by comprehensiveness and a broad inclusion of values, since these presume the inclusion of a variety of perspectives and viewpoints
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