Digital Health

WHO Regional Director for Europe is firmly convinced of the potential of digital health for today’s societies, leaving three key messages: (1) Go digital, but go wisely, (2) build trust by respecting privacy, and (3) address the digital gap. Digital health is a rapidly evolving field that taps into a variety of health domains, including health promotion, disease detection, and treatment, both in clinical context and at the public health level. While the benefits of digital health are manifold, it also brings challenges and limitations that require thorough consideration. This introductory course on digital health aims to make students familiar with the breath of digital health, current challenges, and how they can be addressed from a health communication perspective.

By the end of this course, students will have learned, among others, about: 

• the variety of health domains characterized by digital transformation;
• challenges in adopting digital health tools;
• digital phenotyping, the use of AI and the (dis)advantages compared to standard tools;
• ethical issues in digital health;
• the role of social media for health;
• digital (public) health interventions and applications. 

• Salute e benessere
• Ridurre le disuguaglianze

In presenza

The course alters front lectures with discussion of distributed materials and ad-hoc tasks to approach the field of digital health. Active participation is essential while students are guided in the development of a critical approach towards the use of digital health technologies and data. 

Given the interactive nature of this course, students’ regular attendance is requested. Absence requires justification and prompt information of the course director.

The final grade will be composed of:

• 10%: active and constructive participation during in-class discussions
• 20%: student presentation 
• 70%: final exam

Exemplary Literature/ Sources
Readings and additional material will be made available on iCorsi:

• European Commission (n.d.). Digital health technologies addressing the pandemic. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/digital_health_technologies-addressing-pandemic 
• Jandoo, T. (2020). WHO guidance for digital health: What it means for researchers. DIGITAL HEALTH, 6, 2055207619898984. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207619898984 
• Mathews, S. C., McShea, M. J., Hanley, C. L., Ravitz, A., Labrique, A. B., & Cohen, A. B. (2019). Digital health: a path to validation. NPJ Digital Medicine, 2(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0111-3 
• WHO (n.d.). Global strategy on digital health 2020-2025. www.int/health-topics/digital-health