•  13
    Meta-consent for the secondary use of health data within a learning health system: a qualitative study of the public’s perspective
    with Jean-François Ethier, Anne-Marie Cloutier, Nissrine Safa, Roxanne Dault, and Annabelle Cumyn
    BMC Medical Ethics 22 (1): 1-17. 2021.
    BackgroundThe advent of learning healthcare systems (LHSs) raises an important implementation challenge concerning how to request and manage consent to support secondary use of data in learning cycles, particularly research activities. Current consent models in Quebec were not established with the context of LHSs in mind and do not support the agility and transparency required to obtain consent from all involved, especially the citizens. Therefore, a new approach to consent is needed. Previous w…Read more
  •  2
    Ontologies appliquées biomédicales et ontologie philosophique : un développement complémentaire
    with Rosier Arnaud
    Lato Sensu: Revue de la Société de Philosophie des Sciences 3 (1): 1-8. 2016.
    The massive increase of data generated by heterogeneous sources requires the development of computer tools enabling their semantic interoperability. Applied ontologies aim at fulfilling such needs. We will show in this article the central role that philosophical ontology can play for applied ontology, with a focus on biomedical ontologies; and reciprocally, how applied ontology can enlighten some classical issues in philosophical ontology, by considering the following question: Is disease a natu…Read more
  •  39
    Affordances and their ontological core
    with Fumiaki Toyoshima and Jean-François Ethier
    Applied ontology 17 (2): 285-320. 2022.
    The notion of affordance remains elusive, notwithstanding its importance for the representation of agency, cognition, and behaviors. This paper lays down a foundation for an ontology of affordances by elaborating the idea of “core affordance” which would serve as a common ground for explaining existing diverse conceptions of affordances and their interrelationships. For this purpose, it analyzes M. T. Turvey’s dispositional theory of affordances in light of a formal ontology of dispositions. Con…Read more
  •  229
    La pertinence de la métaphysique analytique a fait l'objet de critiques : Ladyman et Ross, par exemple, ont suggéré d'abandonner ce domaine. French et McKenzie ont défendu la métaphysique analytique en affirmant qu'elle développe des outils qui pourraient s'avérer utiles pour la philosophie de la physique. Dans cet article, nous montrons dans un premier temps que cette défense heuristique de la métaphysique peut être étendue au domaine scientifique de l'ontologie appliquée, qui utilise des théor…Read more
  •  16
    Une ontologie dispositionnelle du risque
    Lato Sensu: Revue de la Société de Philosophie des Sciences 8 (2): 58-69. 2021.
    Risk is an ubiquitous entity in the biomedical domain. Thus, a coherent ontological characterization of risk, which can be used by informatical tools named "applied ontologies", is necessary to help with the exchange and the collection of data for clinical and research uses. We analyze some definitions of risk and draw two general characteristics that risks and dispositions share. We thus suggest that a risk is a disposition which has an undesirable realization for an agent. This definition conc…Read more
  •  13
    Gift, Reciprocity and Learning Health Systems
    with Jean-François Ethier, Roxanne Dault, and Annabelle Cumyn
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (4): 91-93. 2021.
    Lee suggests a conceptualization of health data sharing not merely as an act of altruism, but as a gift. The difference is important, as the inscription of the latter in a social context inv...
  •  2402
    The relevance of analytic metaphysics has come under criticism: Ladyman & Ross, for instance, have suggested do discontinue the field. French & McKenzie have argued in defense of analytic metaphysics that it develops tools that could turn out to be useful for philosophy of physics. In this article, we show first that this heuristic defense of metaphysics can be extended to the scientific field of applied ontology, which uses constructs from analytic metaphysics. Second, we elaborate on a paralle…Read more
  •  33
    An ontological analysis of drug prescriptions
    with Jean-François Ethier and Ryeyan Taseen
    Applied ontology 13 (4): 273-294. 2018.
  •  204
    How Tobacco Health Warnings Can Foster Autonomy
    Public Health Ethics 6 (2): 207-219. 2013.
    I investigate whether tobacco health warnings’ interference with autonomy is ethically justifiable in order to deter people from smoking. I dissociate first the informational role and the persuasive role of tobacco health warnings and show that both roles enable typical addicted smokers to better rule themselves, fostering their autonomy. The fact that some messages address people’s non-deliberative faculties is therefore compensated by a larger positive influence on their autonomy. However, mis…Read more
  •  20
    A statistical taxonomy and another “chance” for natural frequencies
    with Shabnam Mousavi and Jeffrey R. Stevens
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30 (3): 255-256. 2007.
    The conclusions of Barbey & Sloman (B&S) crucially depend on evidence for different representations of statistical information. Unfortunately, a muddled distinction made among these representations calls into question the authors' conclusions. We clarify some notions of statistical representations which are often confused in the literature. These clarifications, combined with new empirical evidence, do not support a dual-process model of judgment