Giovanni Spitale has a background in philosophy and holds a PhD in medical sciences. His PhD dissertation tackled the complex ethical dilemmas brought to the fore by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In terms of approach, he has a strong inclination for empirical ethics and citizen science/participatory research; thematically, his research interests revolve around public health ethics, ethics of risk and crisis communication, and quality improvement in healthcare. In terms of methods, he likes to dip in multiple bowls, combining natural language processing, computational linguistics, qualitative research, statistics, and philosophical analysis into mixed methods approaches. AI, something with which Giovanni is playing a lot, can fit both in the ‘themes’ and in the ‘methods’ box.
He is currently coordinating different projects aimed at empowering public discourse on ethics; notably, ‘The Outbreak’, a participated graphic novel, and ‘Boosting public discourse’, a strategy to improve public moral reasoning. Both projects are funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Additionally, he is a rapporteur for WHO's development of ethical frameworks for social listening and infodemic management.
He has published his research on journals like Science Advances, NEJM Catalyst, the American Journal of Bioethics, and JMIR. His work has garnered media attention, featured in outlets like The Times, The Verge, Wired, El Pais, MIT Technology Review, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Standard, SwissInfo.
His current favourite free-time side project is Ethics500, a semantic network map that shows what ethics is about and where it is going.
He has been a TEDx Speaker.
Research interests
Empirical ethics, public health ethics, information and data ethics, natural language processing, AI, quality improvement in healthcare, organ transplantation, end-of-life, relational autonomy and shared decision making.
Ongoing projects
Publications
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6812-0979ZORA Publication List
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Publications
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2025
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Journal Article
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On Religious Influence in Bioethics: The Limits of Pluriversalism. Bioethics:Epub ahead of print.
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Emotional prompting amplifies disinformation generation in AI large language models. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 8:1543603.
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2024
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Journal Article
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Digital Democracy and Emergency Preparedness: Engaging the Public in Public Health. International Journal of Public Health, 69:1608004.
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The Dual Nature of AI in Information Dissemination: Ethical Considerations. JMIR AI, 3:e53505.
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Soliciting Diaries for “Real-Time” Insights Into the COVID-19 Pandemic: Methodological Reflections on Using Digital Technologies to Engage the Public. International Journal of Public Health, 69:1606912.
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Ethical Considerations in Infodemic Management: Systematic Scoping Review. JMIR Infodemiology, 4:e56307.
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Disruptive Technologies and Open Science: How Open Should Open Science Be? A ‘Third Bioethics’ Ethical Framework. Science and Engineering Ethics, 30(4):36.
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Cross country analysis of qualitative interviews: Developing a method, a community and an understanding of how Covid has been experienced around the globe. SSM : Qualitative Research in Health, 5:100396.
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Beyond Trade-Offs: Autonomy, Effectiveness, Fairness, and Normativity in Risk and Crisis Communication. The American Journal of Bioethics, 24(6):W2-W5.
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The PHERCC Matrix. An Ethical Framework for Planning, Governing, and Evaluating Risk and Crisis Communication in the Context of Public Health Emergencies. The American Journal of Bioethics, 24(4):67-82.
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2023
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Journal Article
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Exploring the role of AI in classifying, analyzing, and generating case reports on assisted suicide cases: feasibility and ethical implications. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6:1328865.
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Women’s experiences with non-invasive prenatal testing in Switzerland: a qualitative analysis. BMC Medical Ethics, 24(1):85.
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AI model GPT-3 (dis)informs us better than humans. Science Advances, 9(26):eadh1850.
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Patient narratives – a still undervalued resource for healthcare improvement. Swiss Medical Weekly, 153:40022.
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2022
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Journal Article
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Addressing Volatile Ethical Issues of Covid-19 with the Core Five Enduring Values List for Health Care Professionals. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery:online.
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Privacy, Data Sharing, and Data Security Policies of Women’s mHealth Apps: Scoping Review and Content Analysis. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 10(5):e33735.
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Concerns Around Opposition to the Green Pass in Italy: Social Listening Analysis by Using a Mixed Methods Approach. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(2):e34385.
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Dissertation
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Ethical Dilemmas in the Time of COVID-19: mapping, understanding, building systemic resilience. 2022, University of Zurich, Medizinische Fakultät.
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2021
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Journal Article
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Pagination
Varia
Scientific Coordinator of Academia Engelberg 2019
Active memberships in scientific societies
- Digital Society Initiative, UZH;
- Citizen Science Centre Zurich