Presentation of the Digital Health Generation project, funded by Wellcome Trust. Project team: Dr Emma Rich, Prof Andy Miah, Prof Sarah Lupton, Dr Sarah C. Lewis

3. THE DIGITAL HEALTH GENERATION
•Wellcome Trust project exploring how young people engage with health
information through digital platforms
•3 phases – from examining the mobile health apps library to working with
18 year olds to understand how they feel about using digital environments
for health
•The nexrt stage will further explore artificial intelligence and young people,
•We are concerned that young people’s voices are often excluded from
horizon scanning.

4. YOUNG PEOPLE AND AI: WHAT WE KNOW
•Despite many reports being published, research specifically
on AI and health with young people is limited.
•Our phase 2 research reveals some insights.

5. AI HAS BECOME AN EVERYDAY THING
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Accenture, 2017

8. “young people are more likely to fear robots and the
future of AI than older people, perhaps because they are
more tech-savvy or have seen recent movie blockbusters
on the theme…. While 26% of all age groups think AI is a
threat, this rises to 47% of those aged under 30.” (Swiftkey
2016, UK).

9. WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS SAID (13-18)
•Expressed value in terms of helping
NHS more adequately allocate
resources
•Expressed desire for face to face still
•Overwhelmed by technology
•Good to chat with a bot if it is an
embarrassing matter
•Can’t always trust a computer
•Text conversation more like
normal life (compared to a
call)
•Healthcare such a personal
thing, don’t want an
algorithm to determine your
care

10. “obviously the NHS is so busy and like, short
staffed, and all the doctors and nurses and
everyone works so hard, that would kind of, filter
out the things that might not be so serious”
(Female/18/White European)

11. “It sounds faster, also especially in the first part it
would feel like you weren’t talking to another
person, so if it was an issue that could cause
embarrassment, you could talk quite freely”
(Female/17/Mixed Race)

12. •Interviewer: “what do you like about it?”
•Participant: “That it’s like a text conversation, so
it’s a bit more like normal to be texting
someone.” (female/14/White British)

13. •Interviewer: “what do you like about it?”
•Participant: “That it’s like a text conversation, so
it’s a bit more like normal to be texting
someone.” (female/14/White British)

14. “I think health is such a personal thing and everyone’s
different and you can’t have a computer run an
algorithm and figure out what this person should do
because it might be completely different to what
someone else needs to do, so,
yeah.” (Female/16/White South African)

15. KEY VALUES OF AI HEALTH
•Efficiency & EASE
•Care Continuity
•Access to data
•Single source of ‘truth’ on
your health
•Collective support
•Personalised treatment
•Prevention

16. UNDERSTANDING OUR DATA

17. DISCUSSION
•We would like your input on the next phase of this research
•What do you think we should ask young people? 13-18 years
•Which communities of young people should we aim to reach especially?
•What kind of public dialogue do we need at this point?
•Plans
•After school Digital Literacy clubs
•Mobile Health App Store in Hospitals

18. http://tinyurl.com/digitalhealthpolicy

19. @DIGIHEALTHGEN / @ANDYMIAH