Introductory description

Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are rapidly reshaping every aspect of our individual and collective lives. While most countries have committed to upholding the human right to the highest attainable standard of health, many still face challenges in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on health, including the commitment to “leave no one behind”. The digital transformation of health – including new systems of health data management, new platforms for telemedicine, the rise of artificial intelligence-driven diagnosis and information-sharing, and the proliferation of mHealth tools and apps, as well as the role of social media and social networks – all offer the possibility for resource-constrained governments to meet these goals. The digital transformation is rapidly changing access to information and services for health, but national and global digital health governance is at an early stage of development. The digital turn and the rise of AI also impose new challenges in upholding the right to health for people in their diversity.

This module explores how the digital transformation of health is shaping human rights, and how human rights are changing in turn, with special attention to the governance of health data, access to digital technologies, and the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence in diverse development and humanitarian interventions. It engages students in thinking through real-world application of human rights principles in diverse international case studies. Students will reflect on the changing meanings of human rights in the digital age, and on how human rights are reinterpreted and "translated" in local and trans-local contexts. They will collaborate to learn how to engage with the United Nations human rights system to promote the right to the highest attainable standard of health in the digital age, as well as reflecting on the challenges and the limitations of the human rights system, formed in the 20th century, to meet new and emerging challenges in the future.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Introduction to the human right to health - Readings and videos introduce the international human rights framework, UN and regional human rights mechanisms, and how governments and civil society apply human rights in both governance and advocacy. In particular, students explore the normative content of the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; and human rights related to digital technologies, AI and digital platforms; and specific challenges for marginalised groups, with attention to some specific cases relevant to criminalisation, stigma, and discrimination. They consider applications of these norms to digital technologies and platforms.

The digital transformation of health - This session presents an overview to the application of digital technologies and AI in health systems, with related technical, ethical and governance challenges for health systems and end users.

Digital divides - This session explores how diverse forms of inequality create barriers to accessing digital spaces and platforms, including socioeconomic barriers, geographic barriers, gender inequality, digital literacy, and more.

Introduction to digital health governance - Who governs digital health? This session explores definitions of digital health, and emerging digital health and data governance norms and mechanisms. It explores the relationship between ethics and rights, and the benefits and challenges with operationalising each. In particular, it explores how strategies and policies to guide digital health development may leave out key considerations including wider inequalities.

The uncounted: Politics of data and quantification - This session explores the challenges in gathering health data on stigmatised and marginalised populations, and how criminalisation and discrimination undermine equitable decision-making in the use of algorithms for public health priority-setting.

Health data governance - Overview to key international standards and principles of health data governance, as well as challenges with applying these in cross-border settings, drawing on some specific cases from East and Southern Africa; and explores concepts and approaches to promoting data justice.

The Digital Welfare State and human rights - This session explores diverse access issues emerging in digital governance in low- and middle-income countries, and the dominant role of the private sector. In particular it draws on specific cases in which digitisation is driving privatisation of sensitive health data and welfare services.

Digital Humanitarianism – Understand why humanitarian organisations need data on refugees, migrants and persons in displacement, the tools and technologies increasingly applied in interventions in humanitarian settings, the ethical and practical challenges to data-gathering and data protection, with reference to specific examples from two field sites.

Artificial intelligence and algorithmic inequality - This session introduces how biases in data and in design of algorithms can create algorithmic inequality that affects health decisions, and the use of participatory approaches to AI, with reference to some specific cases.

Community engagement and meaningful participation –- In this session, participants learn about the principles for meaningful participation in global health governance, their grounding in human rights, and explore how these principles could apply to different stages of digital innovation and governance, as well as some challenges with applying them in practice. It draws on the case of the Digital Health and Rights Project, an example of a participatory action research approach to studying and advocating on digital rights across borders.

• Group work: UN human rights submissions - Review of the process that led to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on digital technologies, innovation and the right to health, and the format used for submissions in response to her call for public input. Drawing on these examples and small group work , participants will draft group presentations and individual submissions on their assigned topics for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.

Closing workshop: Mock hearing and student presentations – In a mock hearing convened by the UN Human Rights Council, students will represent member states and civil society groups. They will present short collective verbal interventions to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, and ask questions of one another from the perspective of diverse countries with varying positions on the issues.

Collective reflections on the process – A facilitated discussion with closing reflections on the process, and the meaning and application of human rights in the digital age.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the digital transformation of health as an area of social and technical innovation that is both affected by and has an effect on human rights in diverse contexts
• 2. Demonstrate a conceptual and practical understanding of digital health governance
• 3. Demonstrate mastery of human rights principles and standards that apply to health-related technology and that can affect the design and implementation of digital interventions for health in diverse settings
• 4. Reflect on human rights issues that are emergent in the design and governance of data, digital technologies and artificial intelligence in the context of global health
• 5. Offer policy recommendations grounded in evidence and human rights norms, and develop approaches to integrating human rights into the design, implementation and evaluation of digital health strategies, frameworks and policies
• 6. Prepare submissions suitable for United Nations human rights mechanisms

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Research element

Collaborative research to develop a group presentation on a specific human rights issue affecting digital health (such as privacy), followed by an individual research paper on some specific aspect of that issue in more depth (for example, about the risks to privacy in digital contact tracing apps)

Interdisciplinary

Social science, law, and public health concepts and literatures will be combined

International

The module focuses on global health, with an emphasis on diverse low- and middle-income country contexts

Subject specific skills

• Demonstrate an understanding of the digital transformation of health as an area of social and technical innovation that is both affected by and has an affect on human rights in diverse contexts
• Demonstrate a conceptual and practical understanding of digital governance, data governance and the governance of artificial intelligence for health;
• Demonstrate mastery of human rights principles and standards that apply to health-related technology, and understanding of how key human rights, racial, gender and other considerations, including geopolitical inequalities, are being affected by the digital transformation, and can in turn affect implementation of digital interventions for health in diverse settings;
• Reflect on new and emerging future human rights issues in governance of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in the context of global health

Transferable skills

• Critically evaluate digital health interventions from the perspective of gender, equity and human rights, analyzing strengths and gaps;
• Keeping notes
• Meeting regular deadlines
• Demonstrate time management skills
• Demonstrate ability to work in a team
• Participate in class discussions
• Offer policy recommendations grounded in evidence and human rights norms;
• Prepare submissions in format and style appropriate for UN human rights mechanisms