HC@AIxIA AI&Health May Seminar: 'Building Trustworthy AI for Health'

Dear Madam/Sir,

This is to officially announce the MAY 2025 seminar of the "AI & Health: Seminars 2025" series as hosted by HC@AIxIA, i.e., the "Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare" working group of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence.

*** Save the date: 12 MAY 2025. 3:30 CET ***

We hope you will attend and participate in the discussion on the relevant topics that will be presented and by our speakers. Feel free to share this with those potentially interested.

Link for participating: https://bit.ly/hc-2025-05 (PLEASE CHECK the site https://aixia.it/en/gruppi/hc/ for any changes or updates) - Please find some details below, and a poster attached.

== May 2025 seminar ==
2025 May 12 - 3:30PM CET

Prof. Barbara Di Camillo, Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Italy

Title: Building Trustworthy AI for Health: Robust and Generalizable Models with a Focus on Challenging Cases

Abstract: To make artificial intelligence useful in real clinical settings, it is crucial that AI tools follow the principles of trustworthy AI. This means ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the results, defining the areas where the results are valid, and making sure the predictions are understandable. This approach ensures that humans remain at the center of the decision-making process. BRAINTEASER (https://brainteaser.health/) is a data science project that uses artificial intelligence to help patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS), along with their doctors. In the presentation, I will show how, during the development of the machine learning methods within the project, we took into account the robustness and generalizability of the model, and how we identified and characterized the subjects for whom making predictions is more challenging.

Short Bio: Barbara Di Camillo is full professor in computer science with the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova. Her research activity is centered in the development and application of advanced modeling, data mining and machine learning methods for high-throughput biological data analysis in the field of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. In particular, she has developed and applied different methods for robust biomarker discovery, predictive modeling and clustering of clinical data and next generation sequencing data. She has also a great expertise in the development and application of differential equation based models, Boolean and Bayesian Networks for modeling the relationships between the variables and the pathways along which they influence the disease progression.

Flyer: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15badJ0Nfj8lrA0gZdFc9aOGeR3pelms-&usp=drive_fs

====

Some notes
Serving as coordinators of the working group on AI for Healthcare of the Italian Association of Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, see: https://aixia.it/en/gruppi/hc/), part of our commitment consists of fostering contamination and collaboration between AI researchers and experts and operators in Medicine and Healthcare; in particular, we aim to contribute in building a two-way road for informing healthcare operators about AI results and opportunities, while also raising awareness among AI researchers about challenges and problems in medicine and healthcare.
Therefore, the 2025 seminar series, in the trail of the 2024 edition, will feature a number of experts presenting research results, projects, best practices, ideas, and more to a mixed audience of AI researchers and healthcare operators.

Thank you for your interest in the AI & Health seminar series and the HC@AIxIA working group, and see you soon!

Sincerely,
Francesco Calimeri, Mauro Dragoni, Fabio Stella
(coordinators of the HC@AIxIA working group)

c/o A.Word.A.Day: Hodges' model - Walk the (dual!) chalk line

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

'Having a tool is like having a superpower in your pocket. With the right gadget, you can do much more than what arms and legs alone allow -- build a magnificent pyramid, lift water from deep below, or even predict whether you’ll need an umbrella tomorrow.

And not all tools need wires, batteries, or instruction manuals. Sometimes, a simple device can save labor -- a lever, a pulley, a piece of string dusted with chalk -- can save hours of sweat and toil.'

chalk line

'Fake news' - nothing new under the Sun

INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

	PD Reporter with "fake news" from an 1894 illustration by Frederick Burr Opper

Kruck, D. A 'ROYAL' BIT OF FAKE NEWS. Gibbons Stamp Monthly, August 2021, pp.28-30.

Image source:
https://aleteia.org/2018/02/09/fake-news-post-truth-and-technology-in-the-19th-century/

HIFA Discussion: Alcohol Use Disorders - Drink Aware and Change

Dear HIFA colleagues,

I would like to invite you to retweet the following that I have just sent on our X/Twitter account:

"Pls RT: I just took the DrinkAware test as if I drank 3 pints a day (well over the recommended limit). The result was "Great news! You are at lower risk of alcohol-related problems". We invite others to check. Thx NPW https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tools/drinking-check#/ "

You can see the tweet and retweet here: https://twitter.com/hifa_org/status/1762399130154885617

We are unsure why the test - which is taken by 900 people every day - is providing such misinformation.

DrinkAware is funded by the alcohol industry.

Thank you for your help to publicise this issue.

Best wishes, Neil

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil AT hifa.org

To which I replied:

RT'd as requested.. 

Reply from twitter ... 

This evergreen article was written 10 years ago
"Be aware of @Drinkaware "https://t.co/UGcVFb5gFB via @peter_g_miller et al

— Ash Paul (@pash22) February 27, 2024

McCambridge J, Kypri K, Miller P, Hawkins B, Hastings G. Be aware of Drinkaware. Addiction. 2014 Apr;109(4):519-24. doi: 10.1111/add.12356. Epub 2013 Oct 28. PMID: 24164565; PMCID: PMC3992896.

UPDATE 10th March

Dear HIFA colleagues,

Further to our discussions on HIFA, in the past week DrinkAware HAS CHANGED THEIR ADVICE to people who drink 42 units per week (3X the recommended maximum). Questions remain about how many people were misled by previous advice, whether that advice was deliberate, and whether WHO's AUDIT test (currently used as the basis for the DrinkAware test) should continue to be used by anyone as an unsupervised self-evaluation tool.

BACKGROUND On 22 February 2024 I reported on HIFA an apparent problem with DrinkAware, the UK's largest alcohol charity, funded by the alcohol industry. https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/alcohol-use-disorders-79-role-alcohol-industry-10-alcohol-industry-and-misinformation

I took their Drinking Check. I posed as a man who drinks 42 units per week (3X the recommended maximum) and DrinkAware told me: "Great news! You are at lower risk of alcohol-related problems. This means you are at lower risk of serious diseases such as stroke, heart and liver disease, and seven types of cancer and may already be noticing the benefits of lower risk drinking such as deeper sleep, more energy and brighter moods."

There was no advice to reduce my consumption.

This test was repeated by other HIFA members in subsequent days, with the same results.

On 4 March 2024 we reported our findings to the World Health Organization.

CHANGE IN ADVICE Today, 10 March 2024, I took the test again. As before I posed as a man who drinks 42 units per week. This time I got a different result:

"You are on the right track. You are at lower risk of alcohol-related problems... To keep your health risks low, the UK Chief Medical Officers advice is to drink no more than 14 units a week. If you are regularly drinking above 14 units per week there are tips and advice below about how to cut down."

INTERPRETATION Prior to 4 March 2024, DrinkAware was encouraging many heavy drinkers (up to 42 units per week) to continue drinking as they are.

DrinkAware claims that its Drinking Check tool was used by 250,991 people in 2021, so it appears that potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of people drinking 14-42 units per week may have been misinformed.

At some point between 4 March and 9 March, Drinkaware changed their Drinking Check tool so that heavy drinkers (up to 42 units per week) are now advised to cut down.

SHOULD WHO's AUDIT TEST BE USED AS AN UNSUPERVISED SELF-EVALUATION TOOL?

Previous messages on HIFA have suggested that AUDIT should only be used as a clinical tool by health professionals, and not as an unsupervised self-evaluation tool. WHO's AUDIT manual notes: 'Care must be taken to tell patients why questions about alcohol use are being asked and to provide information they need to make appropriate responses. A decision must be made whether to administer the AUDIT orally or as a written, self-report questionnaire.' https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/67205/WHO_MSD_MSB_01.6a-eng.pdf

NEXT STEPS

How many people were misled by previous advice, was that advice deliberate, and should WHO's AUDIT test (currently used as the basis for the DrinkAware test) continue to be made available as an unsupervised self-evaluation tool?

I invite HIFA members to suggest next steps. Are you a health journalist (or do you know a health journalist) who might be interested to look into this in more depth? Please pass this on and/or contact me: neil@hifa.org

Meanwhile I shall report this new finding to WHO.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions: hifa AT hifaforums.org

Best wishes, Neil

Finally ...

Dear HIFA colleagues,

We now enter our 6th and final week of the deep-dive into Alcohol Use Disorders, where I invite you to reflect on what has been discussed so far (and what has not been discussed). In your view, what is the key learning in relation to the 5 questions we have explored:

1. Do people understand the health, socio-economic and environmental harms of alcohol? What matters to them? How can they be better informed? How to reduce stigma? 2. Do health workers have adequate knowledge to prevent and manage alcohol use disorders among their patients? What matters to them? How can they be better informed? 3. What is the role of the alcohol industry? What can be done to address misinformation from the alcohol industry? 4. Do public health professionals and policymakers have adequate knowledge to prevent and treat alcohol use disorders in their country? What are current national policies and what more can be done to fully implement those policies? 5. How can we define and measure alcohol use disorders?

To help with this, I have prepared a full compilation of our discussion so far (205 pages):

https://www.hifa.org/sites/default/files/publications_pdf/Alcohol_Use_Disorders_Compilation2.pdf

I shall now work on an edited version (selected text organised under subheadings for each of the 5 questions and for other topics) and will get this to you asap.

Many thanks, Neil

International Conference “AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI” (CAIP’21)

Dear Colleague, 

we are writing to you as we understand you may be interested in this year’s edition of the International Conference “AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI” (CAIP’21). 

Below you will find the official Call for Full papers.
Please feel free to distribute it to mailing lists you manage and to everybody who may be interested.
Thank you and we hope to see you in CAIP’21!

Follow us at:

http://aiforpeople.org/conference
https://www.linkedin.com/company/19176054/
https://www.facebook.com/aiforpeople
https://twitter.com/AIforPeople
https://www.instagram.com/ai_for_people/

 ------------------------------------------------

International Conference “AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI” (CAIP’21)
November 20-24, 2021

Call for Full Papers https://aiforpeople.org/conference/cfp.php
Please distribute (Apologies for cross-posting)

If you wish to receive more information about CAIP’21
https://mailchi.mp/281085ba7b4b/caip21
------------------------------------------------

The International Conference “AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI” was born out of the idea of shaping Artificial Intelligence technology around human and societal needs. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a beneficial tool, its development and its deployment impact society and the environment in ways that need to be thoroughly addressed and confronted.

This year’s edition will focus on Sustainable AI, covering different aspects of social development, environmental protection, and economic growth applied in the design and deployment of AI systems. The conference will provide its participants with opportunities to gain a better understanding of the major challenges of utilizing AI for the societal good. Additionally, it should serve as an incubator for interdisciplinary communities that share a research agenda to exchange and discuss ideas related to the design and application of Sustainable AI. Here, Sustainable AI is a movement to foster change towards greater ecological integrity and social justice in the entire life cycle of AI systems.

*** Themes and Topics *** 

The conference will be interdisciplinary and it welcomes contributions from different disciplines, spanning from computer science, the social sciences, and the humanities. 

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- AI applications for the social good and towards sustainable development goals
- Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
- Sustainable AI for Smart Cities
- Policy recommendations for Sustainable AI
- Green AI for environmental protection
- Accuracy and Robustness of AI systems
- Bias and Fairness in AI Systems
- Privacy and Accountability in AI Systems
- Safety and Security in AI Systems
- Explainability and Transparency in AI Systems

*** Important Dates ***

Submission deadline: October 1st, 2021
Notification: November 1st, 2021
Camera-ready: November 6th, 2021
Conference Days: November 20-24, 2021

 *** EAI Proceedings *** 

Conference proceedings will be published in the EAI CORE Proceedings and included in the European Digital Library (EUDL) and will be submitted for inclusion in leading indexing services, including Ei Compendex, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, CrossRef, Google Scholar, DBLP.

*** Organising Committee ***

The International Conference on “AI for People: Towards Sustainable AI” is organized by the nonprofit international organization “AI for People” (aiforpeople.org).

- General Chairs: Marta Ziosi (Oxford Internet Institute, University Oxford), Philipp Wicke (University College, Dublin) and João Miguel Cunha (University of Coimbra), Angelo Trotta (University of Bologna)
- Program Chairs: Lea Buchhorn (Leiden University) and Vincenzo Lomonaco (University of Pisa)
- Finance Chair: Aina Turillazzi (Tilburg University)
- Publication Chair: Angelo Trotta (University of Bologna)
- Technical Program Committee: Kevin Trebing (Plan D GmbH) and Gabriele Graffieti (University of Bologna)

CAIP'21 is technically sponsored by: EAI. CAIP'21 is supported by: EurAI.

My source: AI-SGES list 

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=AI-SGES 

 

1st WHO Infodemiology Conference - Online

My source: HIFA

We are excited for the WHO Infodemiology pre-conference webinar line up on Monday!

There are over 3500 people registered from 151 countries and territories!

We have arranged for the webinar to be interpreted into French and Spanish.

If you have friends and networks that would be interested in infodemic management and speak Spanish or French, please invite them! They can still register here:

https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/06/29/default-calendar/pre-conference-1st-who-infodemiology-conference

If zoom room reaches capacity, we have prepared an alternate way that you will be able to watch as you connect. Everyone will be available to participate in the *meeting via Slido* ask questions, discuss, and participate in polls.

*The promotional materials, programme and speaker bios will be available* in the event booklet on the public google drive for the event:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/170OrpJG89r4aPmKNE4L5iquIDMxOS4_p?usp=sharing

*The fun starts on Monday, 29 June, at 13:00 Geneva time sharp!*

Kindest regards,

Tina, Lis, Margaux, Stefano, Jianfang and Tim
---
Tina D. Purnat

Temporarily also supporting the WHO COVID-19 infodemic response pillar, see
www.who.int/epi-win

Technical Officer, Digital Health Technologies
Department of Digital Health & Innovation
Science Division | World Health Organization | Avenue Appia 20, 1202
Geneva, Switzerland

Banner: WHO/Sam Bradd
 

Forgotten Rationales ... ?

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

"One of the earliest attempts to systematically classify disease began with John Graunt’s mid-seventeenth-century examination of London’s Bills of Mortality (1939[1662]). London’s series of bubonic plague outbreaks in the first half of the seventeenth century served as the backdrop for Graunt’s statistical analysis. His primary objective was to develop a more comprehensive picture of London’s mortality in order to construct a disease-incident baseline from which to better understand the effects of plague, which tended to overshadow other causes of death. Essential to these objectives were the broader concerns for creating "population profiles through a study of causes of death" (Alter and Carmichael 1999, 121), which Graunt accomplished by estimating London’s population through a geographical analysis, allowing him to calculate crude mortality rates." p.96.

UK coronavirus: care providers allege Covid-19 death toll underestimated Care operators warn coronavirus may  already be in more than 50% of nursing homes (Robert Booth and Rowena Mason, Wed 15 Apr 2020 07.09 BST. The Guardian)

"Sydenham designed his nosology with the needs of the physician rather than those of the statistician in mind. Accordingly, Sydenham and Graunt produced different classification systems based on the distinct purposes for which they were intended. This distinction (clinical vs. demographic) played a more significant role in the nineteenth century, foreshadowing some of the tensions and cross-purposes that informed the development of modern classification systems. As Alter and Carmichael (1999, 121) note: 'The problematic relationship between causes of morbidity and causes of mortality thus presented an ideological barrier between the concerns of physicians and the interests of statisticians. ...one group were lumpers, the other splitters.'" p.97.

Beemer, Jeffrey Keith, "Social Meanings of Mortality: The Language of Death and Disease in 19th Century Massachusetts" (2011). Open Access Dissertations. 428.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/428

Q. Is the state of social care and the applicable policy and legislation under which it operates an example of an 'inverted ring-fence'? Discuss & debate, justifying key policy and legislation as you see it and the implications amid the COVID-19 crisis and future (health and social care) policy.
https://twitter.com/h2cm/status/1250405469929328647?s=20

Remember(?) also:
Forgotten Streams ...  

Data matters in Malaria prevention

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTER-PERSONAL : SCIENCES

HUMANISTIC -------------------------------------------------- MECHANISTIC

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

GROUP

"The number of cases reported for 2000 has gone up in every  single World Malaria Report." Prof. Nicholas White, University of Oxford	Infections 2000 286m Infections 2018 228m   "It is impossible to interpret trends when the methodology  and systems change." p.4. Prof. Richard Price, Menzies School of Health Research, Australia
Burden of malaria on health and [socio-] economic development. Social Determinants of Health Sustainable Development Goals Social Capital Universal Health Coverage Health Services	World Malaria Report - WHO

My source:
Jack, A. Doubts cast on data showing progress of malaria prevention, FT Weekend, 7-8 December 2019, p.4.


[If climate change can affect the transmission of vectors and vectorial capacity, it is essential that due diligence and governance is also applied to prevent 'data creep - contagion'. The challenges in data gathering, statistic analysis are complex enough in theory, practice, policy and management. PJ]

A Spin on Logic, Belief, Facts & Truth

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

Doxastic Logic Individual Belief	Post-truth (time) Short : Long term Statistics Facts Proton Spin Mystery
The public The crowd The people The public - the politicians deserve	Post-truth (politics) Alternative-Facts Fake news False promises True Spin The politicians - the public deserve

My original source:
Simon Kuper, (2017). The age of broken promises, FT, Magazine, 28/29 January, p.5.

Nurses & Social Media - mise en scène

... health on the thrust stage

From: Wordsmith.org

1. The setting of a scene in a play, movie, etc.
2. The setting or background of an event.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French mise en scène, literally "put on stage".

The health care domains model provides a 2 x 2 stage.

It may be a conceptual stage, but it is nonetheless demanding. It demands we perform the translation from theory to practice and check constantly exactly where we are AND where we need to be.

Should we become so ill that hospital treatment is needed the dependency and the sense of vulnerability this provokes often makes us feel that we are 'performing'. Not only that but as a  patient we find our selves on a thrust stage. When illness strikes it seems we are surrounded by this audience of clinicians who can potentially see us from all angles and be privy to very personal information about us.

The demands cut both ways though. Modern health care IS collaborative. Stagecraft here then means there should be minimal furniture and scenery to hide behind. Strange then that in terms of personalised care background details really do matter.

So, everyone matters. Teamwork counts. We try to keep patients off the stage. Patients and carers as expert carewrights may already know their lines - they can teach us. Suddenly everyone is an actor. Suddenly all the players must pass by way of the vomitory and the responsibilities that passage demands. On this stage care also needs to be exercised as per the direction of the NMC.

Original image source:
http://hs-theatre-ib1.ism-online.org/2010/10/14/night-of-the-assassins-thrust-stage/