A Stakeholder-Informed Ethical Framework to Guide Implementation of Suicide Risk Prediction Models Derived from Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Objective

Develop a stakeholder-informed ethical framework to provide practical guidance to health systems considering implementation of suicide risk prediction models.

Methods

In this multi-method study, patients and family members participating in formative focus groups (n = 4 focus groups, 23 participants), patient advisors, and a bioethics consultant collectively informed the development of a web-based survey; survey results (n = 1,357 respondents) and themes from interviews with stakeholders (patients, health system administrators, clinicians, suicide risk model developers, and a bioethicist) were used to draft the ethical framework.

Results

Clinical, ethical, operational, and technical issues reiterated by multiple stakeholder groups and corresponding questions for risk prediction model adopters to consider prior to and during suicide risk model implementation are organized within six ethical principles in the resulting stakeholder-informed framework. Key themes include: patients’ rights to informed consent and choice to conceal or reveal risk (autonomy); appropriate application of risk models, data and model limitations and consequences including ambiguous risk predictors in opaque models (explainability); selecting actionable risk thresholds (beneficence, distributive justice); access to risk information and stigma (privacy); unanticipated harms (non-maleficence); and planning for expertise and resources to continuously audit models, monitor harms, and redress grievances (stewardship).

Conclusions

Enthusiasm for risk prediction in the context of suicide is understandable given the escalating suicide rate in the U.S. Attention to ethical and practical concerns in advance of automated suicide risk prediction model implementation may help avoid unnecessary harms that could thwart the promise of this innovation in suicide prevention.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Patients’ desire to consent/opt out of suicide risk prediction models.

• Recursive ethical questioning should occur throughout risk model implementation.

• Risk modeling resources are needed to continuously audit models and monitor harms.

Keywords:

• Ethical framework
• implementation
• risk models
• suicide prevention

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge Ms. Leah Harris and Drs. Danton Char and Gregory Simon for their collaboration and assistance in interpreting focus group themes, developing and refining survey items, and interpreting survey results.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential competing interest was declared by the authors.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse [DA047724].

Notes on contributors

Bobbi Jo H. Yarborough

Dr. Bobbi Jo H. Yarborough, PsyD and Scott P. Stumbo, MA, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research, Portland, OR, USA.

Scott P. Stumbo

Dr. Bobbi Jo H. Yarborough, PsyD and Scott P. Stumbo, MA, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research, Portland, OR, USA.