Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE
Prof. Mehmet Oz, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Columbia University
Meaningful transformation of the health care system of the world is needed to ensure that 
all humans can enjoy and fulfill their life choices. This change can only occur via the 
restoration of trust between individuals, communities and the health professionals that 
serve them. The basis for this trust can be found through the re-affirmation of a covenant 
we doctors make, as professionals, with those that depend on us to protect them from ill 
health and medical harm. Physicians have a professional duty and civic responsibility to 
speak out on the well being of our citizens and communities and to promote needed and 
meaningful change.
We have a rich heritage as professionals of placing the patient’s interests first, continually 
improving our own proficiency, and regulating ourselves. But as part of our covenant 
with patients and society we also need to advocate for two fundamental principles to 
create a 21
st
century intelligent health care system. First, nations must have affordable 
health insurance for all since without health, we cannot build wealth.
Second, almost all nations need modernized health information systems. We can reduce 
dangerous and expensive medical errors by creating electronic patient records that can be 
exchanged among health care providers and brought together to produce meaningful 
outcomes data to support decision-making. Under such a system, both doctors and 

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Chapter VI – Solidarity and Equity | 117 
patients would be better informed and medical practice advanced. These are not new 
ideas, but the power of our agreeing to push for change can be transformational.
SOLIDARITY BY BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Rodrigo Baggio, Founder and Executive Director, Committee for 
Democracy in Information Technology (CDI)
By reinventing modernity, globalization undeniably left a trail of contradictions. Recent 
developments in Information Technology have opened new opportunities in virtually 
every field of human activity. The benefits of this remarkable tool, however, are not 
being evenly shared. Only a small minority of the world’s population currently has access 
to ICTs, and thus many across the globe remain unable to take advantage of the promises 
and opportunities of this new Digital Age. This has led to the emergence of a new kind of 
exclusion: digital exclusion.
A classic example of digital exclusion is Brazil, the country in which CDI (Committee 
for Democracy in Information Technology) was founded 11 years ago. In spite of the fact 
that Brazil has the 14
th
largest economy in the world, a full 70% of the country’s 180 
million people have never accessed the internet. Furthermore, it has been reported that 
there are more web hosts in Finland than in all of Latin America. In a country where 67% 
of the population has not completed elementary school, and more than 50% live on $70 a 
month or less, severe lack of opportunity has driven many, especially youth, to crime and 
violence. Sadly, more youth die today because of violence in the city of Rio de Janeiro 
than in all of Palestine or even Iraq.
CDI was the first organization in Latin America to focus on the digital divide. Since our 
inception, we have advocated the dissemination of technology as a tool to empower at-
risk youth and adults to find solutions to their own problems, promote community 
development, fight poverty and stimu late entrepreneurship. Our primary aim is social 
inclusion through digital inclusion. CDI's educational curriculum is based on the 
methodology of renowned Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who advocated education as a 
tool for social change and empowerment. The underlying principle of the curriculum is to 
help people help themselves by integrating technology capacity building with discussions 
about issues relevant to their communities such as human rights, sexual education, health 
and non-violence. The CDI model is anchored in the notion that computer technology 

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118 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age 
skills are essential to creating fully enfranchised citizens in this Digital Era. To date, 
more than 500,000 people worldwide have benefited from CDI programs.
For CDI, digital inclusion means much more than simply providing access to computers 
and the Internet. In the 891 CDI schools operating in 19 Brazilian states and another 8 
countries, students are taught how to use information technology to enhance their abilities 
to think critically and creatively, to analyze political and social reality, to develop 
strategies to solve local problems, and to generate jobs and business opportunities. In this 
sense CDI has widened the concept of digital inclusion by integrating education and 
technology with the values of solidarity, equity, and entrepreneurship for social 
transformation. Above all, we are committed to expanding and improving the reach of 
our programs in order to help Latin America and the world come closer to meeting their 
promises for the Millennium. So far, thousands of communities around the globe have 
been transformed. We look forward to transforming many more.