Biomedical research as technology: Blockchain solution for decentralization based on Habermas critical theory

Background and aims: Biomedical researches are organized with the aim of producing biomedicalknowledge. These researches consist of many components. Technological tools, living organisms,questionnaires, organizational rules, study methods, scientific methodology rules, datasets,commercial companies, institutions, universities, advertising and media tools, governments andpeople themselves all exist within this system and are involved in the definition of biomedicalresearch as a systemic technology.Research, as a systemic technology, also follows its governing nature. Technology in the definitionof a system has a human being inside it, and it cannot be considered as a mere user outsideit, similar to technology defined as a tool. The attempt to dominate the lives of the technical andbureaucratic elites is technocracy.Method: In his criticism of technocracy, Habermas formulates the duality of “action”-”interaction”,an expression that reminds of the Aristotelian interpretation of “techne”-”praxis”. “Action”is based on the centrality of rational choices and productive goals, while “interaction” is basedon the centrality of consensus norms. This distinction reminds us of the instrumental-systemicdistinction in defining biomedical research as technology. The technological and ideological developmentof the institution of research has led to the concentration of its power and dominanceover research.Results: Current biomedical research works in a centralized, top-down framework. The descriptionof this situation in biomedical research with the help of Habermas’ critical view will clarifythe various dimensions of centralist challenges in them. Challenges such as public participation,reproducibility, free access to information and data, the absence of a huge data network, and theundemocratic nature of the system governing biomedical research.Conclusion: The effort to solve these challenges should be based on an approach to decentralizebiomedical research. Providing a solution to solve this centralism can be effective in a wide wayon the damage caused by it. One of the solutions that can be helped is to replace the centralizedsystem of biomedical research with a system that has decentralization in it. Our proposed solutionfor this issue is the use of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a shared and immutable ledgerthat facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. Using it to collect andrecord data, analyze big data, decentralize the research publication process, transparency and freeaccess, and democratize the research process can be useful. Using this technology can also createchallenges. Abandoning subjectivity as much as possible, technologicalization of medical diagnoses,increasing health anxiety, weakening the relationship between doctor and patient, creatingfinancial relationships between researchers and research subjects, and promoting pseudoscienceand methodological errors are among them. These challenges require more analysis and investigationfrom the side of meta-research, health humanities and philosophy.

کلیدواژه ها:

Biomedical research ، blockchain ، Habermas ، critical theory ، decentralization