Building a research agenda for critical medical humanitarian data studies

Healthcare data technologies, such as digital mapping or biometric patient records, promise great advances to help people in humanitarian emergencies. But these technologies are double-edged. Each development produces unanticipated consequences, some benign and others negative. Few expected the disruptive role social media would play in democratic politics in the US and Europe, for example. These disruptive effects can be magnified in situations of war, epidemics, or the displacement that characterises humanitarian emergencies. Those affected are vulnerable and those who were vulnerable before become even more so. The risk of inadvertent harm increases, while in many settings people seek to subvert technologies, to use them against the people they were meant to help. 

This project brings together humanitarians, technologists and researchers to take stock of existing research and develop a new agenda focused on creating safe, ethical and sustainable digital health technologies for humanitarian settings.