With the Covid-19 crisis, a door seems to have opened for digital technologies in the health sector. From drones repurposed for public health messaging to symptom checkers and more intrusive tracing and tracking apps, a range of solutions have been offered to the challenges posed by the pandemic. Epidemiology models, accessible to the esoteric few, are now discussed glibly on twitter and WhatsApp. The private sector is also getting interested in ‘exposure notification’ technology as they consider reopening businesses after a long period of lockdown. The potential is huge but so is the scope for missteps. There are clear gaps in access and accuracy. Equally, there are issues around frameworks for privacy protection and data access as also capacity for building digital solutions globally. Our invited experts discuss whether the world will be able to overcome these challenges and respond in a fundamentally different way to the next pandemic or if this will prove to be a flash in the digital pan.

Speakers

• Nanjira Sambuli, Commissioner, The Lancet & Financial Times Commission "Governing Health Futures 2030"
• Anne Liu, Lecturer of International and Public Affairs, Colombia School of International and Public Affairs
• Tina Purnat, Technical Officer, Digital Public Health Technologies, World Health Organization
• Sameer Pujari, Manager of the Be He@lthy Be Mobile Initiative, World Health Organization; Vice-Chair of the ITU/WHO Focus Group on AI for Health
• Moderated by Amandeep Singh Gill, I-DAIR Project Director, Global Health Centre; Visiting Lecturer, Graduate Institute, Geneva

      Biographies

Public Events Series on the Coronavirus

This public webinar series aims to offer an interdisciplinary analysis of the COVID-19 epidemic, explore national responses to the crisis and their impacts. The event series will serve as a platform for regular in-depth discussions between researchers from the Graduate Institute and other institutions and address various emerging thematics.