I speak to public health audiences about what the digital information environment is doing to health systems, and what can be done about it.
Over the past five years that has meant keynotes at the European Public Health Conference, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar and the Public Health Association of BC; plenaries and panels at APHA, SOPHE and the World Congress on Public Health; and guest teaching at Harvard Chan, Imperial College London, LSHTM, UC Berkeley, McMaster, Heidelberg and TUM.
Before that I led health information systems and digital health work at WHO adn ECDC, and infodemic management at WHO, where I built the first global infodemic manager training and convened the first WHO infodemiology conference. Most of what I talk about comes from having had to make it work somewhere first.
Talks I give
Trust is a verb
People can trust a health institution and still not follow its advice. Why confidence and compliance come apart, and what health systems can do that communication campaigns cannot.
Given as a keynote to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
The AI apocalypse has been cancelled
What AI assistants are actually doing to the visibility of health information, and why the risks worth planning for are not the ones being discussed.
Given as a keynote at the Public Health Association of BC annual conference.
Peeling the digital onion
How the modern information environment reaches into public health, from platform design and commercial incentives through to what a person brings into a consultation.
Delivered to university and agency audiences, including ECDC and the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health.
Infodemic management, from framework to practice
What infodemic management is, what capacity a health agency needs to do it, and how to build that capacity with the staff you have.
Based on the WHO competency framework and the global trainings built around it. Delivered as a masterclass for CAPHIA and as workshops for the Malta Ministry of Health.
Critical health literacy in digital spaces
For student and youth audiences. Real cases from digital culture that open honest discussion about influence, evidence and health, rather than a lecture about misinformation.
Delivered at UC Berkeley, the University of Memphis and to the WHO Youth Council with IFMSA.
Formats
- Keynote or plenary, 30 to 60 minutes.
- Conference session, panel or moderated discussion.
- Masterclass or workshop, half a day to several days. I build these around scenario work and simulations rather than lectures, so participants leave having done the thing.
- University guest lecture, or a module inside a graduate course.
- Webinar for a distributed audience.
- Podcast and media.
Where I have spoken
Conferences and academies. European Public Health Conference (Dublin, and a 2021 keynote), American Public Health Association (Atlanta, and the 2024 session on health equity in the digital age), World Congress on Public Health (Rome), Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, SOPHE, Public Health Association of BC, Pediatric Academic Societies (Boston), SBCC Summit (Panama), GlobalFact 11 (Sarajevo), Salzburg Global Seminar with RWJF, Fondation Mérieux, the Royal Society with Wikimedia UK and the BBC.
Universities. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Imperial College London, LSHTM, UC Berkeley, McMaster, University of Manchester, University of Memphis, University of Minho, University of Belgrade, Warsaw University of Technology, TUM, Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar.
Agencies and institutions. WHO, PAHO, ECDC, OECD, EDMO, Nigeria Health Watch, the Malta College of Family Practitioners and Ministry of Health, CAPHIA, PHIRI, EUPHA.
Booking
Tell me the date, the audience, the format and the topic you have in mind, and I will tell you quickly whether I am the right person for it. If I am not, I will usually know who is.
Bio for programs
Short. Tina D Purnat works on digital transformation in public health, health information systems and information ecosystems in health. She is Vice President of Global Health at the European Public Health Association, and is completing a Doctor of Public Health at Harvard.
Longer. Tina D Purnat has spent twenty-five years at the intersection of public health, technology and information, including roles at WHO and ECDC. At WHO she led the infodemic management work that produced the first global infodemic manager training, the WHO competency framework for infodemic management, and five international infodemiology conferences. She is Vice President of Global Health at the European Public Health Association, co-chairs the Working Group on Global Health Equity and Digital Transformation at the World Federation of Public Health Associations, is Associate Editor of JMIR Infodemiology, and advises Health Promotion International. She is completing a Doctor of Public Health at Harvard, where her research is on systems change and how health systems can better use community and workforce insight. She has published more than 80 articles and abstracts and edited one book.