Cultural Corner

Abstract

Consequently, AI can introduce significant ethical, operational, and equity-related risks." Misinformation, outdated recommendations The authors noted that public health systems operate within chronic structural constraints such as data fragmentation, underinvestment, workforce shortages, and health inequities and that data used to train AI models can reflect historical trends of poor healthcare access, structural racism, and social inequality. Prioritization of commercial interests over health, equality Apps driven by AI also may, under a facade of offering tailored, evidence-based guidance, promote uniform health recommendations such as annual mammograms for all women aged 40 and older, despite ongoing debate in the medical community about optimal screening intervals and consideration of the balance between saving lives and the harms of false-positive test results and overdiagnosis. "The threats to children's developmental privacy differ from the data sovereignty concerns of Indigenous communities, the misclassification risks for older adults differ from the surveillance-related fears of undocumented families or incarcerated people, the digital divide barriers facing rural and global populations differ from the engagement-based manipulation risks faced by people with behavioral health conditions," they wrote. Third-party certification needed Adirim and Molten also presented strategies to assess AI tools, such as: Mandatory equity-impact evaluations Validations in the settings for which they are intended Alignment with data-sovereignty principles Transparency regarding when and how AI is used in communities Continued investment in the public health workforce capacity needed to test the tools Human oversight of important decisions National standards for AI transparency and equity testing Rather than relying on spotty or absent industry self-regulation, a coherent governance architecture, national standards, and a third-party certification process similar to those for aviation and medical devices should be put in place, the authors said."

Abstract

New research reveals fraudulent clinician reviews often seem more credible because they include richer personal health details that real patients are reluctant to share publicly. Researchers say these detailed narratives exploit a gap between the information people want to read and what real patients are willing to share. Patients naturally want detailed information when they're choosing a health care provider. A real patient might simply say a doctor was helpful, while a fake review tells a detailed story about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment," says Aishwarya Deep Shukla, associate professor at the Beedie School of Business and lead author of the study."

Abstract

This edition of Medicine Matters highlights a recent Perspective in JAMA, titled Respriatory Virus Vaccines: Restoring Confidence and Trust." I co-authored this with Andrea Garcia from the American Medical Association (AMA), Dr Michael Osterholm from the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP) and the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), and Dr Rochelle Walensky, from VIP, CIDRAP, and Harvard Medical School and former CDC Director. To address that, we have now an exciting new collaboration between the AMA, the VIP at the University of Minnesota, and four medical specialty societies: the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Family Physicians, and Infectious Diseases Society of America. This shakeup led to a resolution at the AMA's House of Delegates meeting in June 2025, demanding action to restore ACIP to its former glory in the long term — but in the interim, to support only previous ACIP recommendations as of May 1, 2025, or vaccine recommendations from national medical specialty societies. And there's great news for those who choose to save time and get several shots at one visit: The VIP review of new evidence did not show any new safety concerns when giving flu shots at the same time as COVID and RSV vaccines."