Realizing the Right to Health through Healthcare Technologies

2022 Health and Human Rights Lecture with Katharina Ó Cathaoir

New and emerging healthcare technologies—including whole genome sequencing, wearables and AI assisted treatments—offer innovative possibilities for realizing the right to health. These technologies hold the potential for automatizing certain processes to free up time for healthcare professionals to spend with patients, detecting disease more accurately and swiftly, and furthering access in remote communities. However, digital medicine also raises other human rights concerns, posing risks to privacy, self-determination, and equality. This talk will trace the promises and pitfalls of such emerging technologies from a human rights based perspective.