Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Oct 18;11(10):e0164347.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164347. eCollection 2016.

The Adoption of Cloud Computing in the Field of Genomics Research: The Influence of Ethical and Legal Issues

Kathleen Charlebois  1 , Nicole Palmour  1 , Bartha Maria Knoppers  1
Affiliations

The Adoption of Cloud Computing in the Field of Genomics Research: The Influence of Ethical and Legal Issues

Kathleen Charlebois et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This study aims to understand the influence of the ethical and legal issues on cloud computing adoption in the field of genomics research. To do so, we adapted Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) theory to enable understanding of how key stakeholders manage the various ethical and legal issues they encounter when adopting cloud computing. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with genomics researchers, patient advocates and cloud service providers. Thematic analysis generated five major themes: 1) Getting comfortable with cloud computing; 2) Weighing the advantages and the risks of cloud computing; 3) Reconciling cloud computing with data privacy; 4) Maintaining trust and 5) Anticipating the cloud by creating the conditions for cloud adoption. Our analysis highlights the tendency among genomics researchers to gradually adopt cloud technology. Efforts made by cloud service providers to promote cloud computing adoption are confronted by researchers' perpetual cost and security concerns, along with a lack of familiarity with the technology. Further underlying those fears are researchers' legal responsibility with respect to the data that is stored on the cloud. Alternative consent mechanisms aimed at increasing patients' control over the use of their data also provide a means to circumvent various institutional and jurisdictional hurdles that restrict access by creating siloed databases. However, the risk of creating new, cloud-based silos may run counter to the goal in genomics research to increase data sharing on a global scale.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Consort diagram of recruitment process of participants from each group.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Cloud computing adoption in genomics research.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Vaquero LM, Rodero-Merino L, Caceres J, Lindner M. A break in the clouds: towards a cloud definition. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. 2008;39(1):50–5. 10.1145/1496091.1496100 - DOI
    1. Stein LD, Knoppers BM, Campbell P, Getz G, Korbel JO. Data analysis: Create a cloud commons. Nature. 2015;523(7559):149–51. Epub 2015/07/15. 10.1038/523149a . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yang YT, Borg K. Regulatory Privacy Protection for Biomedical Cloud Computing. Beijing Law Review. 2012;03(04):145–51. 10.4236/blr.2012.34020 - DOI
    1. Dove ES, Joly Y, Tasse AM, Public Population Project in G, Society International Steering C, International Cancer Genome Consortium E, et al. Genomic cloud computing: legal and ethical points to consider. European journal of human genetics: EJHG. 2014:1271–8. 10.1038/ejhg.2014.196 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Forer L, Schönherr S, Weißensteiner H, Specht G, Kronenberg F, Kloss-Brandstätter A. Cloud Computing In: Trajanoski Z, editor. Computational Medicine: Springer; Vienna; 2012. p. 27–36.

LinkOut - more resources