Samantha Adams Festschrift: The Dot at the End of the Funnel—TILT Remembers Samantha Adams

Introduction: The Foundation

When colleagues at The Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) learned of Samantha Adam's death, the shock and sadness unfolded on multiple levels. Sam, as she was known by everyone, had been at TILT for 4 years and, in that time, had become a beloved colleague and friend to many, as well as the leading force and driver for the development of a dedicated health research line at TILT. Sam was in the process of bringing the many strands of her work together from a research and teaching career that explored issues in health through the lens of Science Technology and Society studies (STS), Health Policy, and Medical Informatics.

Sam had decided that eHealth would be the umbrella under which she would integrate her research and teaching. Consequently, when she came to TILT, her longstanding interest in medical informatics and online health research readily and naturally transformed into the launch of a rapidly developing research line on eHealth.[1] But as Sam was always quick to point out, “eHealth is not ‘one thing’!” “You really cannot talk about the regulation of eHealth or the ethics of eHealth – it involves a vast array of different technologies giving rise to different issues.” Although we shared this understanding, it was clear that this had become one of Sam's rallying cries, a pet peeve. But at the root of this annoyance was the fact that, as Sam pointed out, not getting your foundational terms right at the outset will significantly lower the depth, quality, and value of the analysis that could be done as a result. It was this kind of insistence on intellectual integrity that guided Sam's work. Some may have experienced it as stubbornness, but the result was indisputable—Sam's research foundations were solid.

• References

• 1 Adams SA, Van Veghel D, Dekker L. Developing a research agenda on ethical issues related to using social media in healthcare. Camb Q Healthc Ethics 2015; 24 (03) 293-302
• 2 Adams SA, Petersen C. Precision medicine: opportunities, possibilities, and challenges for patients and providers. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2016; 23 (04) 787-790
• 3 Adams SA, Paul KT, Ketelaars C, Robben P. The use of mystery guests by the Dutch Health Inspectorate: results of a pilot study in long-term intramural elderly care. Health Policy 2015; 119 (06) 821-830
• 4 Adams SA, Silva K, Koops BJ, Van der Sloot B. The regulation of botnets: how does cybersecurity governance theory work when everyone is a stakeholder?. In: Ellis R, Mohan V. , eds. Wired: Cybersecurity Governance. London, UK: Wiley; 2018
• 5 Adams SA, Brokx M, Dalla Corte L. , et al. The Governance of Cybersecurity. A comparative quick scan of approaches in Canada, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Tilburg/The Hague: TILT/WODC; 2015. Available at: https://www.wodc.nl/binaries/2484-volledige-tekst_tcm28-73672.pdf . Accessed March 29, 2018