Keynote - ACM Interactive Health 2026

Wednesday, July 8 | 11:10Auditório Francisco de Assis, Porto

Same Technology, Different Master: AI as Liberation Technology

Hugo CamposPatient Research Partner

Abstract

For decades we built health software for institutions and pointed it at patients. The portal you log into, the ambient scribe in the room, the prior-authorization model you never see: some of it is patient-facing, none of it is patient-directed. Even well-intentioned research still deploys AI on patients, not with them.

Now the same technology has changed sides. Patients are directing AI to build the tools their institutions never would. Without writing code, I built OpenKP, an open-source bridge to my own Kaiser Permanente record, by directing an AI coding assistant. I am not a developer who built a tool. I am a patient who directed an AI to build the tool I needed, when no one else would. That is the inversion: agency crossing to the patient's side of the table.

This talk introduces Critical AI Health Literacy as the competence that turns that agency into liberation, and puts a harder question to the field that invented participatory design: when you include patients as participants but not as researchers, are you still building institutional AI? The inversion is already here. The question is who gets to wield it, and whether HCI helps build it well, and for whom.

About Hugo Campos

Hugo Campos is a patient advocate and healthcare researcher working at the interface of human-computer interaction, patient autonomy, and artificial intelligence. His work began after his diagnosis with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and the implantation of a cardiac defibrillator. Mr. Campos is the founder of ResearchPartner.org and a leading voice in Critical AI Health Literacy, which he defines as the ability to use AI to analyze the power structures shaping health, evaluate outputs for bias, and take informed action through what he calls "algorithmic resistance." He designs and uses patient-directed AI tools, including agentic systems that give patients direct access to their own health records. Drawing on Paulo Freire's pedagogy of liberation, he argues that technology should help patients become co-authors of their own care. Named a White House Champion of Change for Precision Medicine by President Obama in 2015, Mr. Campos is a TEDx Cambridge speaker featured on NPR and in the Wall Street Journal.

Monday, June 1 | 14:10 Online

Working at the Interface Between HCI and Health: Tales of Challenges and Triumphs

Ann BlandfordProfessor at University College London

Abstract

Novel technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, telemedicine, robotics, wearables and more, offer huge promises in healthcare – for use by clinicians, patients or both together. Yet many design concepts that look great on paper or in localised settings fail to scale up into impactful clinical practice. In this talk, I will reflect on experiences of working with interdisciplinary teams on various health technology projects.

These teams have involved clinicians, patients, engineers, entrepreneurs, epidemiologists and health economists as well as HCI specialists. I will draw on examples to discuss some of the challenges as well as the triumphs and present lessons learned from working in multi-disciplinary teams. These include lessons about design processes, involving users, dealing with regulations and simply working with people who have different backgrounds and values to your own. By building on these experiences, we improve the likelihood of designing and deploying healthcare technologies that are truly impactful.

About Ann Blandford

Ann Blandford is Professor of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) at University College London. She is also a member of the ACM CHI Academy and recipient of an IFIP TC13 Pioneer award. She has led many research projects on the design of systems to support people managing individuals’ health. She works closely with patients, clinicians, and healthcare engineers, in both the UK and internationally. Her current projects address a range of health and wellbeing challenges. She has published widely on the design and use of interactive health technologies, and on how technology can be designed to better support people’s needs and values, recognising that people are living complex lives and often managing complex health conditions.