A strategic health initiative: context for Coronavirus

The current Coronavirus pandemic is a disruptive event, a global ‟Kodak Moment” (Johnsen et al 2018). Life will not be the same again. This does not mean that there had been no previous warnings. We now need to think about ways forward after the pandemic. Back in September 1985, at a conference in Brighton hosted by the AI&Society Editor, Karamjit Gill, on ‟Artificial Intelligence for Society”, we discussed ways forward in our field. I was working at Imperial College and in the UK Alvey Directorate, designing and managing research and development in Advanced IT. I outlined a suggested ‟Strategic Health Initiative”, which was published in AI For Society (Ennals 1986b), and in Star Wars: A Question of Initiative (Ennals 1986a). Over the last 34 years, there have of course been many major technological advances. However, I suggest that the principles set out in the paper remain valid for the new context in March 2020.