I gave a talk at the Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) South Asia‘s Health and Humanity Summit, which brought together topics of access to medicines, equity and health misinformation.
I was asked specifically to describe the intersection of information environment with health and humanitarians, and the impact of AI in this context.
My key points:
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For people working in public health, we have to consider how the information environment intersects with health services (or lack thereof) and humanitarian emergencies. People may have less access to credible sources of health information and services. They may experience other types of vulnerability, such as poverty and being unhoused. Additionally, health information isn’t always available in the right languages or acceptable formats for communities to understand.
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When a community’s health information and service needs are not met, this can lead to further mistrust. Distrust is the outgrowth of the perception that promises were broken and values violated. In a humanitarian setting, all of these challenges are more acute.
- We talk a lot about health equity, but we should also be talking about health information equity. Not everyone has equal access to credible health information. We also should consider intergenerational health information seeking. If you have a kid or a teenager at home, you know they can find anything faster than you on a phone. You can leverage the people who are digitally literate and are connected to reach those who are not, even in emergencies.
- We need to come together globally to promote regulation and governance of the health information environment where there is not only government and tech sector, but also have communities and frontline health workers at the table.
Here’s my full notes in my LinkedIn blog.
