Digital self-determination/Digital Health and Well-Being

In this module, learners will approach and learn about the chances and challenges of digital self-determination in health from a multidisciplinary angle – technology, medicine, law and policy. From a technical perspective, learners will explore which problems in medicine can and cannot be solved with artificial intelligence (AI). Using the COVID tracing app as an example, the clinical utility of AI shall be explored from a medical perspective. Within a legal and policy analysis, learners will consider how individual and public interests can be balanced adequately in order to foster innovation while also protecting individual rights.

Learning Materials

 * “What Artificial Intelligence Can and Can’t Do Right Now”, Harvard Business Review, by Andrew Ng
 * “AI Recognizes COVID-19 in the Sound of a Cough”, IEEE Spectrum, by Megan Scudellari
 * “What can machine learning do? Workforce implications”, Science, Vo. 358 (3670), by Erik Brynjolfsson and Tom Mitchell
 * "Digital tools against COVID-19: taxonomy, ethical challenges, and navigation aid", The Lancet Digital Health Vo. 2, August 2020, by Urs Gasser et al

Video Sparks
For this session, videos were not recorded but we share with you the summation of the speakers' talks and would encourage folks to use these as starting points to find additional video or audio content that explores these issues. A good example are the writings, videos, and other materials by the Berkman Klein Center on Internet and Society's Digital Pandemic Response program.

Learning Artifacts
For this week’s artifacts, we asked participants to find a current example that illustrate some of the questions, challenges, or elements discussed in the session as relates to digital self-determination and the intersection of technology, medicine, policy and law in their country, region, state, or city and write a brief case study.

Activity
For this module's activity, learners looked for an interesting current example of some of the questions, challenges, or elements discussed in this module in relation to digital self-determination at the intersection of technology, medicine, policy and law in their country, region, state, or city.

Goal: Conduct some research on the intersection of technology, medicine, and policy in your country or region, and produce an artifact that addresses or raises some of the questions and concerns from this module in relation to digital self-determination. Ideally, these will be case studies that will highlight what is happening, what are some of the challenges and solutions possible in the situation, and what are some of the additional questions raised through the lens of digital self-determination. Ideally, the artifact would include a set of questions to push the audience to think more deeply about the example or to compare it/connect it to other examples (e.g. “What could be changed to enhance the peoples/communities’ abilities to take more control of their health data?”)

Format: This activity can be written, audio recording, video, or some other multimedia concept (animation, branching scenarios, collage, Prezi, etc). We encourage the use of visuals to conceptualize it but those visuals can be simple (hand-drawn on notebook paper that you capture with your phone) or more complex--and obviously, no visuals if you are doing something written or in audio solely.

We encourage you to be as creative as you want with this but we also encourage that if you are making things, particularly visuals or integrating video/audio content from elsewhere that you make sure you have the legal permission to do so. Along those lines, we encourage the use of Creative Common licensed materials or even materials from places like the Internet Archive. Additionally, we ask that you do not use logos of Digital Asia Hub or Berkman Klein Center in the creation of your artifacts.

If you are exploring this course on your own, we encourage you to create artifacts to share on Twitter or other social media platforms using the following hashtag: #DigitalSelfDetermination

Speaker Bios
Satchit Balsari

Dr. Satchit Balsari is a Professor in emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Since 2009, he has been affiliated with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, where his research has contributed to advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations affected by disasters and humanitarian crises. His interdisciplinary interests in mobile technology, disaster response, and population health have been informed by his clinical practice in the United States and his field work around the world. His research has resulted in innovative applications of mobile, cloud-based technology to address public health challenges in mass gatherings, disasters, and humanitarian crises. Dr. Balsari received his medical degree from Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India and his public health degree from Harvard; he completed his emergency medicine residency at Columbia and Cornell’s New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In March 2017, he was awarded the Dr B.C. Roy National Award by the President of India, for “outstanding services in the field of sociomedical relief.” Dr. Balsari is an Aspen Ideas Scholar, and Asia 21 Young Leader at the Asia Society.

Stefan Feuerriegel

Stefan is a Professor of management information systems in the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich. His group develops, implements, and evaluates new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to solve real-world challenges and to make a profound impact in our daily lives. Examples include AI tools for monitoring the COVID-19 epidemic, for managing global development aid flows, for identifying and mitigating fake news, and for effectively detecting health risks in diabetes patients. In his research, Stefan partnered with global industry players such as Foursquare, Thomson Reuters, ABB Hitachi, or Siemens to bring AI into practice. Stefan has further been an advisor of the SDG Financing Lab of the OECD, and a member of a COVID-19 working group of the World Health Organization (WHO). After obtaining a PhD from the University of Freiburg, he was a strategy consultant with McKinsey, and a visitor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; the University of Texas at Austin; the University of New South Wales, Sydney; and the National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo.

Kerstin N Vokinger

Kerstin N Vokinger is a Professor at the University of Zurich, Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center (Harvard University), and Affiliated Faculty at Harvard Medical School (Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law). In her research, she focuses with her team on interdisciplinary questions at the intersection of law, medicine, and technology, with the goal to improve access to medicine and technology. In her areas of expertise, she also advises governmental authorities and international organizations. Kerstin studied in parallel law (JD) and medicine (MD), and conducted a PhD at the University of Zurich. She also completed a Masters of Law (LLM) at Harvard Law School, was a Visiting Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, and a Postdoc Fellow at Harvard Medical School.