Every week, HEADlines brings you the latest news, stories and commentaries in education and healthcare. This week, get insights on the latest developments in healthcare. image Eliminating ageism in artificial intelligence for health From digital smart assistants to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated many aspects of our lives. In the world of public health and medicine, AI holds great potential to revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered – from predicting a person’s health risk, supporting a personalised care plan to enabling the drug development process. Yet, if left unchecked, AI could amplify and perpetuate existing bias in society which in turn could undermine the quality of healthcare for underrepresented groups like older people, women and people of colour. In early February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a policy paper “Ageism in artificial intelligence for health” focusing on the dangers of ageism in AI while offering eight strategies to cover these age-related biases in AI tools for health. In sum, the paper recommended that AI developers and practitioners include seniors in the data collection, design, development, use and evaluation process. Furthermore, it advocated for an ethics and governance framework that will guide the research and implementation of AI technologies among older people, so as to protect them. It is in the hope that these considerations will remove the encoding of any stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against seniors, thereby creating systems that will truly reap the benefits of AI in healthcare for older people. Healthcare in the Spotlight Fortune: Is the COVID pandemic getting less deadly? The gap between cases and deaths is widening The likelihood of surviving COVID-19 is improving around the world. Vaccines are working, treatments are advancing and, at least for now, the virus itself seems less intent on killing. Nature: Omicron-targeted vaccines do no better than original jabs in early tests Experiments in animals show that boosters customised for the fast-spreading COVID variant offer little advantage over standard jabs. MIT Technology Review: Dementia content gets billions of views on TikTok. Whose story does it tell? Some influencers record people with dementia at their worst, and without their consent. Now, advocates are raising important questions about the ethics of these popular videos. Forbes: UNICEF: COVID-19 worsens ‘double burden’ of child malnutrition in Indonesia Pandemic lockdowns and disrupted nutrition services make it harder for children in Indonesia to stay healthy. While some are not eating enough, others are getting the wrong foods. Global Times: How Traditional Chinese orthopedics treatment helped in freestyle skier Gu Ailing’s success Olympic gold medalist Gu Ailing attributes her exceptional performance to the post-training recovery and rehabilitative plans based on the Sichuan Zheng-style orthopedics method. CSR Wire: Illumina collaborates with National Cancer Center Japan to address a leading cause of death in Asia Genomic analysis of blood samples of up to 96 patients with nasopharynx cancer will be performed, and the end result used to improve health outcomes and progress the development of personalised treatment. Phys.org: Scientists find the climate and health impacts of natural gas stoves are greater than previously thought A Stanford-led study reveals that the methane leaking from natural gas-burning stoves inside U.S. homes has a climate impact comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars. Healthbytes Doing a natural kidney cleanse at home Source: Healthline Certain foods, herbs, and supplements can help support strong kidneys. From your morning glass of water to that extra cup of herbal tea, here are four ways to cleanse your kidneys and keep them functioning strong. Photo credit: Jamie Street on Unsplash