Those funding and engaging in global health research and practice are increasingly embracing digital and mobile phone solutions to public health and health system challenges, particularly across low- and middle-income countries. Given that much of the world is now connected via mobile and digital devices, many such interventions can be delivered by anyone, from anywhere at any time. Platforms and data can often be used interchangeably to advance health research, health care delivery and disease surveillance, potentially making it harder to delineate boundaries between these terrains.

While offering important benefits, our digital connectedness has also posed challenges for achieving better population health, not least of which during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, various commercial entities are involved not only in developing digital health capabilities, but also in establishing their terms and conditions of use. This raises important questions about whether ethics standards for global digital health are adequately established, at present, to meet the needs of our complex interconnected digital world. This talk will begin to engage with this question, inviting discussion to advance specification of values, principles and approaches that can guide ethical global digital health practice.

This seminar will be held on Zoom, please register here: medsci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpc-mtpz4sGtSLsiPPbM0rjhHHiFVE5ovB