Health Assessments in the Post-Truth Period

Ann Forsyth (Harvard GSD)

How can HIA thrive in a post-truth period? Health Impact Assessments come in a range of formats—procedurally and in terms of substance. An aspiration of many HIAs is to improve evidence-based decision-making via an interplay between research-based, professional, and local knowledge. By using the lens of health, of interest to most people, it can create a place where those with diverging interests can productively interact. In the current period, however, growing critiques of scientific and professional expertise are undermining some of that potential for interaction. This is exacerbated by the situation that in some important areas of human-health-environmental interaction evidence is thin. Even where empirical evidence is available there are many variations among places making it hard to figure out which empirical work to draw on. Clear theory can help bridge these gaps but, again, opens evidence-based practice to critique. What can be done?