So you want to quit smoking. But you want to do it right, with expert advice and evidence-based information. Should you ask Siri? This week my co-author Nick Wilson and I published results of a pilot study reporting how effective personal digital assistants are at providing information or advice to help you quit smoking. As far as we are aware our study is the first study looking at whether Siri or Google Assistant can help you quit.

Everyone knows that socio-economic inequalities in health exist – in recent times. But one thing we do not know is whether they have always been there. Adapt Research Ltd contributed to a just published study that looks at two historical datasets – with one of these suggesting life span differences by occupational class as measured 100 years ago.

Falls are a major cause of injury and reduced quality of life for older people. Estimates suggest that more than a quarter of people over 65 years of age fall in any given year. Broken hips and head injuries are among the most serious complications of a fall. This is why the New Zealand Health Quality and Safety Commission has spent several years encouraging the health sector in New Zealand to implement programmes that reduce harm from falls.

Two recent articles in the media reminded me of a concern about AI. Firstly, the BBC asks us whether we would care if a feature article was, ‘written by a robot’? The implication is clear, it will soon be the norm for digital content to be created by intelligent systems.

To read a Radio New Zealand article citing Adapt Research Ltd’s research paper on AI in Policy Quarterly, click here: https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/352044/govt-too-upbeat-about-ai-expert

The following introduction is an excerpt from a just published blog at Sciblogs that examines the role of AI in society and democracy. Read the full article here: Transformative advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated much hype and a burst of dialogue in New Zealand.

“Artificial Intelligence and Free Will: A 2017 Christmas Carol” (Talk presented by Matt Boyd at the NZAP Conference) https://adaptresearchwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/artificial-intelligence-and-freedom-nzap-talk.m4a

As we build our world we build our minds: reboot Six years ago, while I was writing my PhD on technology and human nature, I wrote a blog where I argued that: Context builds us – Our social and technological environments can hinder, but they can also drive psychological development. Technology drives human development – Physical and digital tools shape us and build our intelligence;

When deciding what medications to publicly fund PHARMAC uses multiple decision criteria, one of which is ‘health need’. So how can we establish who needs what in healthcare? Distributive Justice One approach is to take the perspective of justice. What factors do we need to consider to ensure a just distribution of resources?

The Guardian headline reads: “New heart treatment is biggest breakthrough since statins” and the article goes on to claim that “cancer deaths were also halved”. Sounds impressive. So how should we decide whether to fund this drug? The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings of a randomised controlled trial into this new treatment just two days ago. The study was well constructed, with an impressive sounding 10,061 participants.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health has recently published its 2017 pandemic action plan. Flicking through it I noted that it tends to cite other governmental publications rather than academic sources. Of course, many of the publications cited may well cite the academic literature themselves, but I decided to take a quick independent look at what has been published since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.