Nanomedicine governance: a systematic review

Abstract

Nanomedicine bears essential benefits from both medical and technical perspectives. However, there are toxicological, environmental, ethical, and social implications worth researching. Governance encompasses, among other things, the management of risks and benefits of new technologies to minimize risk and, presumably, increasing benefits. This paper aims to show an overview of nanomedicine governance through a systematic review of scientific literature. The methodology consisted of five steps: 1) searching for papers in Scopus, Web of Science and SciELO; 2) cleaning results; 3) gathering altmetrics from Dimensions; 4) reviewing papers, and, 5) critical analysis of the papers. We identified certain regulatory deficiencies and ethical issues related to nanomedical products. There has been an advance in researching threats to health and the environment from nanomedical applications, but there are still gaps in regulation.