Ethical concerns in non invasive medical imaging: A case study and pilot framework for tackling ethical issues in digital imaging

Medical imaging and especially medical imaging of non invasive forms, such as the one described in this paper, is perceived not to be connected with major ethical concerns, therefore limited attention has been given to the drawn of internationally accepted, standardized codes of ethics and accepted rules of conduct regarding the acquisition, storage and handling of sensitive personal medical data as digital images. Yet, ethics include a range of issues that medical professionals, clinicians, non medical personnel and medical imaging technologists should take under serious consideration, comprehending that patients should retain the right to control the creation and use of representations which identify them. This paper attempts to describe a theoretical and technical framework necessary to tackle ethical challenges that can emerge during the implementation of a research project that involves acquisition, processing and storage of medical imaging data, such as the diagnosis of the disorder of early age idiopathic scoliosis.