Innovazione tecnologica in salute e commodification: verso un nuovo dovere di protezione dell’individuo

This work aims at critically assessing the relationship between technological innovation in healthcare and commodification. To achieve this objective, the notion of homo medicus is recalled and framed into the current, feverish development of the information and communication technologies for healthcare and health-related purposes. In addition, the aforementioned relationship is assessed in the light of further trends affecting contemporary healthcare systems such as medicalisation and health consumerism. Looking at the interplay of these phenomena may shed light on the shift medical epistemology is undergoing towards a quantitative-statistical model based on collection of (ever more digitalised) data. Finally, it is also addressed a suggestion on the potential rise of a new duty of protection of the individual by the State against the excessive exposure to technological commodification in healthcare. The taking of this role by the State may also contribute to invert the trend towards loss of national sovereignty, i.e. by building a policy for technological innovation cleared from the agenda set up by medical and technological corporations.