SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTH FOR TERRITORIAL EQUITY: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN URBAN CENTERS AND VULNERABLE REGIONS
This symposium examines how science and technology—through tools such as artificial intelligence and health technology (healthtech)—act as drivers of social transformation and equity in rural and remote areas, as well as in urban peripheries and marginalized communities of large cities. Unlike consolidated urban centers, both remote regions and vulnerable communities with high levels of multidimensional poverty face profound gaps in medical infrastructure, connectivity and specialist availability. In response, engineering emerges as a bridge to social inclusion.
The session calls for, but is not limited to, presentations of technological developments, monitoring devices, diagnostic support tools, assistance and rehabilitation solutions, and AI-based solutions designed specifically for contexts of low connectivity, limited resources or vulnerable populations. Practical case studies and impact evaluations of territorial projects—such as multidimensional diagnostics of aging and health—that demonstrate how decentralized technology strengthens community autonomy will also be prioritized.
By bringing technical innovation together with cultural and geographic relevance, this symposium invites researchers, engineers, health professionals and public policy makers to debate technological sovereignty and the relevance of health technology for territorial equity. The goal is to consolidate an ecosystem demonstrating that high technology can, and must, be an accessible tool for guaranteeing well-being and the right to health in the world’s most forgotten territories.
