Developments in the diagnosis of disease for medicine and public health
Advances in diagnostic tools could improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. But how can patient trust and equitable access be ensured?

Many innovations have improved the COVID-19 response and could be key for future-proofing against pandemics. What are the governance and privacy concerns?
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58248/HS24
Digital technologies are being used in new ways to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, this rapid deployment is pushing the boundaries of what people normally consider to be acceptable levels of surveillance, raising concerns about privacy, transparency, discrimination, and social exclusion.1,2,3
Digital innovations being used to address the challenges of the pandemic include:
The release of mobility data by Google and Foursquare to help understand how COVID-19 policies affect how communities move around.11,12
Many innovations have improved the pandemic response and are likely to increase preparedness for future epidemics. New uses of digital technologies have also been demonstrated, which could lead to wider use in other settings. But some uses have raised concerns about privacy, transparency, social exclusion and discrimination, especially when deployment has been rapid and scrutiny limited. Examples include:
A POST survey of over 1,100 experts found that more than 30 were concerned by the reduction of digital privacy during the pandemic. Issues included a lack of public trust in contact tracing apps,19 potential use of people’s data in ways they do not expect, and that increased surveillance in the short-term may lead to its normalisation and greater privacy breaches in the long-term.
Experts have helped us identify 30 areas of change to help the UK Parliament prepare for the future.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Advances in diagnostic tools could improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. But how can patient trust and equitable access be ensured?
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Artificial intelligence could change policing. But the efficacy of such technologies is not well established. What are the governance and privacy concerns?