SHADE Newsletter 13th June 2024

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of the SHADE newsletter! 

SHADE is a research hub with a mission to explore issues at the intersection of digital technologies/AI, health and the environment. It is guided by a fundamental question: How should the balance between AI/digital enabled health and planetary health be struck in different areas of the world, and what should be the guiding principles?

The SHADE newsletter comes out every two weeks, bringing you a selection of the latest news, upcoming events, academic publications and podcasts in the SHADE space.

In this newsletter, we highlight climate change adaptation in India. We feature analysis at the SHADE intersection from SHADE authors, take a sweep through air pollution, bridges and brain monitoring, note calls for a climate policy ‘evidence bank’, check in on AMR, mental health and drinking water, get the latest on energy grids, data centres and chips and much more. We hope you enjoy it!

Please tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what you think is missing at [email protected].   

Highlight on climate change adaptation in India

• Changing rainfall patterns in India lead to calls for better and more local data collection, and for farming’s ability to respond to be considered.

• There are similar calls for local heat action plans to extend their focus beyond just human health as heatwaves in India have got hotter, lasted longer and affected wider areas.

• Both of these phenomena demand an end to postponing action to mitigate climate change, and the adoption of a perspective wider than simply human health when adapting to climate change.

News

• Microsoft is first to predict air pollution for the whole world, Nature reports.

• Bridge maintenance and monitoring systems are called for as climate change is set to increase the risks of bridge collapses with the fatalities and injuries that result, as well as the huge indirect consequences environmentally, economically and socially.

• A non invasive and biodegradable method of monitoring brain changes makes use of existing tech (ultrasound detector), and holds promise for uses elsewhere in the body .

• Nature reports on the need for a “what works” evidence bank on policies to tackle climate change, noting that this is what Wellcome are advocating for from the perspective of climate change’s impact on human health, along with the use of AI to aid evidence synthesis.

• As communities wake up to the environmental devastation potential of data centres, Big Tech companies are meeting increased resistance. Chile provides a recent example.

What we’re listening to

• Two podcasts from the One Health Trust in June: Targets for tackling AMR looks at the “10-20-30 by 2030” goals and What if drug resistant infections never happened in the first place? highlights the huge potential in infection prevention.

• Sasha Luccioni talks about energy star ratings for AI models.

• Two podcasts looking at different ways to be more grid aware: This one from the Carbon Copy suggests splitting computing demand into ‘batchable’ and always on, and putting the batchable loads on location with the renewable energy. Meanwhile this podcast from GreenIO discusses the potential for dynamic pricing in cloud services, based on renewable energy availability.

• If we know so much why aren’t we we doing anything? This is the question in the latest podcast from GreenIO which explores some insights from Finland on making software greener.

What we’re reading

• An analysis piece in the BMJ from SHADE directors and members on why digital innovation may not reduce healthcare’s environmental footprint.

• Compound mortality impacts from extreme temperatures and the Covid 19 pandemic: A study using data from England and Wales highlights the need to increase preparedness for compound health crises.

• The need to prioritise mental health in the climate crisis is underscored in this systematic review which demonstrates how little we know about the effect of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies on mental health, particularly in LMICs: It highlights that the global climate and mental health crises make further equitable research urgent.

• This paper attributing cardiovascular mortality to non optimal temperatures over time calls for mitigation and adaptation strategies.

• This practice brief reports on including drinking water source and arsenic testing history into Electronic Medical Records.

• This paper on the health co-benefits and trade offs of carbon pricing synthesises evidence and identifies opportunities to design carbon pricing to improve health outcomes.

• Wellcome’s policy brief on driving action on AMR.

• Two ideas to improve the environmental sustainability of data centres. First up, a view from with the industry, From Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to Ecosystem Intelligence. Secondly this preprint on a game theory approach to allocating batch compute loads with time and place flexibility across a global network of data centres - depending on your appetite for algebra you may want to fast forward through some sections.

• Find out the latest on the role of chips in accelerating AI in this feature article from Nature.

Events

• The Global Digital Health Forum is happening this year in Nairobi between December 4th and December 6th. Submit your abstracts here by July 10th.

• GHASP, The Greener Healthcare and Sustainability Project, are running an in person and virtual conference in Leeds on September 27th. Find out more, buy tickets and submit abstracts here.

Opportunities

• The 2024 Health Resilience Community Fund from Foundation S, Sanofi’s philanthropy engine, has a call for proposals out. Innovation and data driven interventions for climate adaptation and health resilience are one of its three priorities. The deadline for submission of concept notes is June 30th.

• The Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University have launched a £10M prize for Interspecies two-way communication using generative AI. Get your submission in by the end of July!

And finally something hopeful from Planet A, which looks at energy wastage and the synergy between renewables and energy efficiency.

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