Digital Dilemmas Debate #1: Balancing the benefits and risks of digitalisation in public health emergencies

About the Event

How are digital technologies and data being leveraged to support the responses to COVID-19 around the world? Has the pandemic accelerated our use of experimental technologies? How can we balance the benefits and risks introduced or amplified by these technologies while protecting rights to privacy and medical confidentiality?

Building on the first Digital Dilemmas Dialogue, ICRC have invited policy, public health and technology experts to explore the many facets of technologies used to respond to health emergencies. The debate will focus on the COVID pandemic as a global case study, with a particular emphasis on digital health passports that many public health authorities are currently designing and deploying. The speakers will offer insights on how to balance the risks and benefits of these technologies while enabling a better public health response and upholding the rights of affected people.

The discussion will be the second event of the January thematic path – COVID-19 and Digital Response.

Speakers & Panelists

• Helen Alderson (ICRC)
• Massimo Marelli (ICRC)
• Stuart Campo (UNOCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data)
• Carmela Troncoso (EPFL)
• Ana Beduschi (University of Exeter)
• Garrett Mehl (WHO)

The Series

The Digital Dilemmas Debates are a series of roundtable discussions between prominent experts and stakeholders from different sectors about the humanitarian digital transformation, its implications and the work ahead. Each month, they will explore a different type or trend in the technologies used to respond to various types of crisis, and offer reflections on what is coming next.

The Digital Dilemmas Debates are an initiative of the DigitHarium.