This Forum explores how artificial intelligence and health technology intersect with Latino health, examining both transformative opportunities and critical risks. Expert panelists address the promise of AI in precision medicine, the urgent need for patient data rights and protections, the role of telehealth in health equity, and community-led environmental health monitoring using advanced technology.

Discussions highlight groundbreaking work developing AI models trained specifically on Hispanic/Latino clinical and genomic data to reduce diagnostic bias. However, speakers emphasize that AI systems built without Latino representation risk perpetuating rather than reducing health disparities.

The Patient AI Rights Initiative reveals that 74% of surveyed patients express concern about health data being shared without consent, underscoring the need for independent patient governance in AI policy. The session examines telehealth equity challenges, with nearly 30 million Americans lacking broadband access necessary for remote healthcare services—disproportionately affecting Latino farmworkers and rural communities.

Community organizers demonstrate how air quality monitoring technology documents environmental health hazards in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, revealing that two-thirds of South San Francisco residents breathe air exceeding WHO safety thresholds, contributing to asthma cases in children as young as three years old.

Key Topics Include:

• AI bias risks and Latino-specific healthcare data needs
• Patient rights: consent, transparency, and data ownership in the AI age
• Social determinants of health integration in precision medicine
• Telehealth equity and the digital divide
• Federal broadband expansion funding opportunities
• Community-led environmental monitoring and data ownership
• Air pollution’s link to cancer and respiratory disease in frontline communities

Speakers include: Enrique Velazquez Villarreal, MD, PhD, MPH, MS (City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center); Andrea Downing (The Light Collective); Luis Belen (National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved); and Julio Garcia (Rise South City).