Perception and Communication of Risks in Healthcare: Challenges to Trust and Legitimacy

This conference explores how communication by authorities and institutions influence public trust in a Nordic context. 

We focus on the challenges to trust in the retrospective analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the prospective integration of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. When we consider the somewhat different approaches of the Danish and Swedish pandemic responses and the options for responsible risk communication about "black box" algorithms of Large Language Models (LLMs), we face a common dilemma: How do we communicate risk when we cannot offer guarantees? Scientific knowledge is inherently defeasible – never final, always subject to new evidence or change of theoretical frame. Risk assessment is inherently probabilistic.

We examine how the academic recognition that science is socially constructed—a perspective often explored within Science and Technology Studies—has been co-opted by populist movements and skepticism spurred by social media, threatening the legitimacy of evidence-based medicine.  

The conference will feature talks that highlight somewhat contrasting philosophies of crisis management and risk communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. Speakers will include Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist during the Covid-19 pandemic. and leading representative of the Denmark’ Health Authority involved in management and communication to the public. Professor Michael Bang Petersen, leader of the large-scale HOPE project iniated to study how democracies cope with Covid19, will describe the complex interplay between public trust, government policies, and pandemic response effectiveness. Ragnar Löfstedt and Frederic Bouder will suggest a framework for risk communication that supports regulators and institutions in rebuilding trust and maintaining legitimacy even when navigating high levels of scientific uncertainty and public polarization. 

By examining lessons from pandemic management with emerging challenges in AI-driven healthcare, the conference will help participants identify means of achieving trust-sustaining communication in an age of unavoidable uncertainty.

Program to appear

Participation fees:

• 1485 DKK till April 1 / 1785 DKK after April 1 

Members of IDA Risk / DSKS: 1285 DKK till April 1 / 1585 DKK after April 1 

• Students including PhD: 585 DKK (contact hhk@ida.dk if you are PhD)
• Conference Dinner: 580 DKK  

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