ArticleCanadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique2021
On the imperative of thinking through the ethical, health equity, and social justice possibilities and limits of digital technologies in public health.
Article in Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Negotiating privacy and responsibility in digital public health: a qualitative study of the social and ethical implications of peer-to-peer health data sharing.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Building the Workforce's Capacity to Support the Digital Transformation of Public Health: Environmental Scan of Training Programs for Digital Technologies in Public Health.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Opportunities and Challenges for an Organizational Digital Public Health Strategy in a Provincial Public Health Program in Canada: Qualitative Description of Practitioner Perspectives.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Vaccine Equity: Protocol for Exploring Vaccine Distribution Planning and Scheduling in Pandemics in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Considerations for adapting digital competencies and training approaches to the public health workforce: an interpretive description of practitioners' perspectives in Canada.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Behavioral interventions-past, present, and future: Proceedings of the 5th International Behavioural Trials Network International Hybrid Meeting.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Article
- Integrating health equity in artificial intelligence for public health in Canada: a rapid narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Digital Competencies and Training Approaches to Enhance the Capacity of Practitioners to Support the Digital Transformation of Public Health: Rapid Review of Current Recommendations.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Review
- Defining the role of digital public health in the evolving digital health landscape: policy and practice implications in Canada.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2024Article
- Changes to Public Health Surveillance Methods Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- The paradoxes of telehealth platforms: what did we learn from the use of telehealth platforms?Frontiers in digital health · 2024Article
- Alignment and specifics of Brazilian health agencies in relation to the international premises for the implementation of digital health in primary health care: a rhetorical analysis.Frontiers in sociology · 2024Review
- Differential uptake and effects of digital sexually transmitted and bloodborne infection testing interventions among equity-seeking groups: a scoping review.Sexually transmitted infections · 2023Article
- Ethical principles for infodemiology and infoveillance studies concerning infodemic management on social media.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Defining Digital Public Health and the Role of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2021Article
- Digitization and Health in Germany: Cross-sectional Nationwide Survey.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2021Article
- Stakeholder Perspectives on the Responsible Innovation in Health Framework for Addressing Stigma-Based Health Inequalities Among People Who Stutter.International journal of language & communication disordersArticle
- Article
- Challenges in the development of digital public health interventions and mapped solutions: Findings from a scoping review.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated both the positive and negative use, usefulness, and impact of digital technologies in public health. Digitalization can help advance and sustain the core functions of public health, including health promotion and prevention, epidemiological surveillance, and response to emergent health issues. Digital technologies are thus-in some areas of public discourse-presented as being both necessary and inevitable requirements to address routine and emergency public health issues. However, the circumstances, ways, and extent to which they apply remain a subject of critical reflection and empirical investigation. In this commentary, we argue that we must think through the use of digital technologies in public health and that their usefulness must be assessed in relation to their short- and long-term ethical, health equity, and social justice implications. Neither a sense of digital technological optimism and determinism nor the demands of addressing pressing public health issues should override critical assessment before development and implementation. The urgency of addressing public health emergencies such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires prompt and effective action, including action facilitated by digital technologies. Nevertheless, a sense of urgency cannot be an excuse or a substitute for a critical assessment of the tools employed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.