Winter 2024 - Digital Issue

Health Justice in the Digital Age: Can We Harness AI for Good?

Winter 2024: Volume 31, Issue 4

• Welcome

• Building Boundaries in Love for Equity and Justice: An AI Manifesto
  

  “At its core, AI must be a force that serves humanity, not the other way around. It must enhance our collective capacity to build more just and equitable societies. AI tools are not neutral; they carry the biases and assumptions of the systems and individuals who create them. When we build AI, we must ask: Who benefits from this technology? Who is harmed? This manifesto advocates for the creation of parameters rooted in love, equity, and justice to guide AI’s continued development and deployment.”

  by Yewande O. Addie

• The AI Mirror—How to Reclaim Our Humanity in the Age of Machine Thinking: A Conversation with Tonie Marie Gordon and Shannon Vallor

  “[T]he training data that we use to build models of human intelligence…which are not themselves intelligent but simply reflect the human intelligence that trained them, are actually a very small selection of the data that we have, and those data are a small selection of the outputs of human intelligence on the planet…. So there are billions of people on this planet who don’t get to be represented in these mirrors, and their intelligence is like the light that falls outside the mirror.”
  

• Brave New World: What Does the Digital Age Portend for Health Justice?

  “Achieving health justice in an already unjust environment requires both structural reforms and ethical use of AI. To prevent AI from amplifying existing inequities, advocates need to develop policies that prioritize equitable care over profit, enforce transparency, and involve marginalized communities in the application of AI.”

  by James A. Lomastro

• Dismantling Bias: Toward Ethical and Inclusive Health Innovation

  “The creativity and ingenuity of socially marginalized and racialized groups can drive innovative healthcare solutions. However, despite their potential contributions, these groups are too often shut out of innovation ecosystems. Advancing innovations that lead to equitable and sustainable solutions in the healthcare system requires interrogating the inequities embedded within research, design, and testing processes for novel health solutions, as well as diversifying the people involved at each stage.”

  by Tonie Marie Gordon

• From HeLa Cells to Digital Health: Navigating the Promises and Pitfalls of Modern Clinical Research

  “In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, digital health innovations...are reshaping clinical research in some promising ways. However, the pressing and healthcare makes digital health a very complex challenge. This article explores the current state of data, data’s role in digital health and clinical research, old and emerging concerns vis-à-vis health inequities, and a vision for an equitable digital future.”

  by Matimba Swana and Evelyn Kamau

• Our Bodies, Our Data, Our Destinies: Native American Women Harnessing Technology for the Benefit of Our People

  “Primary technologies for building and maintaining modern health justice movements are artificial intelligence, geolocation, and social media. These tools, all packed into mobile phones to which many (but not all) people now have access, are in and of themselves becoming determinants of our health and can function for good or evil, depending on who is controlling and monitoring them. At [Indigenous Justice Circle], we are harnessing these technologies to establish a collective movement built upon genuine human reciprocal relationships for Indigenous community benefit.”

  by Kelly K. Hallman

• The Double-Edged Sword of Health Innovations: Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Equity in Nigeria

  “Emerging technological innovations in healthcare have the potential to transform public health and healthcare delivery systems.... However, health innovation, when narrowly defined as the application of technologies, often overlooks the broader socioeconomic contexts in which it is deployed. In Nigeria, where health inequities are deeply rooted in systemic issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and inadequate governance...the introduction of new technologies can sometimes deepen these disparities rather than alleviate them.”

  by Emmanuel Onwuka

• The App That Missed the Mark: A Black Woman’s Quest to Build AI That Heals, Not Just Fixes

  “Amara sits on her couch in the heart of Harlem, staring at her phone in disbelief. Gratitude? The mindfulness app she’s been using is suggesting her struggle with workplace racism is just stress, and that some thankfulness might be in order. But Amara knows better. As both a Black woman and a clinical social worker, Amara spends her days helping other Black women navigate a mental healthcare system that often fails them. But lately, it’s Amara who could use some support.”

  by Coumba Sy

• When the Mouth Speaks, the Whole Person Heals: Bringing Integrative Community Therapy and Solidarity Care from Brazil’s Favelas to the United States

  “The social fragmentation our society is experiencing shows up first in the fraying of [our social support] networks. Innovation is necessary to address the structural challenges of social disconnection, exclusion, and isolation that are leading to the mass experiences of loneliness, trauma, and despair—but whether or not technology can be a positive, powerful force to that end remains to be seen and, in fact, currently is a big part of the problem.... The critical question is, How can we ensure that innovations in technology are rooted in equity and become tools for justice, empowerment, and wellbeing, including in our healthcare systems?”

  by Kenneth S. Thompson

• Minding the Gaps: Neuroethics, AI, and Depression

  “Neuroscience, broadly, deals with the nervous system and the brain, including mental health. If applied thoughtfully, AI could reduce existing biases in that area; without diligence and oversight, however, AI-driven innovations will worsen the racial and economic inequities that prevail.... Neuroethics, a field that explores the moral and ethical implications of neuroscience, must rise to this new challenge as the United States ponders the potential risks and benefits.”

  by Gemma Boothroyd

• The Art Effect: Neuroaesthetics and the Future of Health Equity

  “While many practitioners have long observed the healing benefits of engaging with beauty, nature, and the arts, and scientists have been studying such effects for many decades, neuroaesthetics researchers are now zeroing in on the biological mechanisms behind the effects. As a result, a growing number of doctors in the United Kingdom and Canada have embraced prescribing music, dance, and other art activities—an approach supported by research showing that engaging in the arts helps with such ailments as Parkinson’s, dementia, heart disease, and obesity, and can alleviate depression and decrease chronic pain.”

  by Ari Honarvar

• The Virtual Healer

  “In the year 2080, medical advancements have reached dizzying heights. Crowded hospitals are relics of history, as the majority of healthcare has shifted to the virtual world. People are no longer treated by flesh-and-blood doctors but instead by highly advanced telemedicine systems, which combine artificial intelligence, holography, and remote robotics.”

  by Aashima Rawal

• ENDPAPER
  Heart of the Matter