VIRTUES: A Design-Fiction Framework for Eliciting the Values of Sustainable, Responsible Surgical Innovation

The rapid advancement of medical and surgical technologies offers tremendous opportunities, but it also presents significant challenges. As innovations like AI-driven systems, robotic surgery, tissue engineering, and mixed reality become more prominent, it is crucial to consider their societal, ethical, and global implications. This paper explores the use of design fictions, a speculative thinking approach, to envision potential futures shaped by technological advancements in healthcare. We introduce VIRTUES (Values and Impact for Responsible Technological Use in Environments of Surgery), a ten-principle framework aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to provide a global evaluation tool. Through fictitious scenarios, we examine how innovations might have unforeseen repercussions and explore their potential benefits, unintended consequences, and long-term challenges. The VIRTUES framework helps assess their impact across its ten principles, focusing not only on technical performance but also on issues like accessibility, equity, privacy, and the dehumanization of care. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of responsibility and foresight in technological development. We argue that using design fictions to envision future possibilities reaffirms human agency, challenges technological determinism, and guides medical advancements, ultimately paving the way for a just and accessible future for all.

Recommended citation: El-Mufti, N., Drouin, S., Jannin, P., & Kersten-Oertel, M. (in preparation). VIRTUES: A Design-Fiction Framework for Eliciting the Values of Sustainable, Responsible Surgical Innovation. arXiv preprint.
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