Figure 2.

Dialectical forces and values impacting on the health data-to-knowledge innovation trajectory. Data, especially health data, are a key component fueling the bioeconomy. Increasingly, for-profit entities exploit these data and operate side-by-side other actors in large-scale science consortia. Small-scale, “artisan” science teams also exploit health data. Both churn these data into information and knowledge-based innovations. Ethicists play a role in this trajectory, either by examining the scientific practices of these actors and commenting on the bioethical implications, or by working alongside scientists to enable them to realize their innovations in an ostensibly ethical manner. However, the embedded values of these consortia and artisan small-science endeavors can differ. We claim that consortia may knowingly or unknowingly adopt an ideology of “extreme centrism”, while artisan small-science endeavors strive to maintain an “indie” spirit.