Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: Ethical and Privacy Challenges in Stroke Digital Health

Digital health solutions are being increasingly used to support care delivery across various medical fields. In stroke care, technology has contributed to enhancing prehospital workflows, facilitating communication among health care professionals, and enabling fast-track systems for hyperacute stroke management. Furthermore, digital tools are used to improve etiological diagnosis and allow for more tailored long-term follow-up of stroke patient survivors. Digital technologies have become an integral part of stroke management, and the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence continues to accelerate and drive this transformation. However, ethical and privacy considerations are central and represent a major challenge for the design and implementation of digital solutions in health care. Health care professionals involved in stroke care require a clear understanding of the digital tools they use, including their potential, limitations, and biases, and must be aware of the responsibilities inherent in relying on such systems for treatment decisions and outcome prediction. This topical review aims to examine current digital innovations in stroke care, with a particular focus on the key ethical and privacy challenges they raise.