My work addresses the responsible governance of data-intensive health innovation with a special focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging health data ‘spaces’. I’m particularly interested in the comparative dimensions of digital health in Canada and the EU, including how technical infrastructures and popular imaginaries generate different health-related futures.
I am currently a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Milan, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University, Canada, and a Postdoctoral Affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society.
Conceptually, my work engages with perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to trace how heterogeneous elements such as actors, infrastructures, and expectations come together to produce particular outcomes. To this end, my work has addressed trust and trustworthiness, participation and co-design, designer agency, accountability, policy regimes, data assetization, and key events in AI development and use.
Empirically, I employ qualitative methods, including case study research and ethnography. My research has also taken the form of collaborations with AI development teams, where I worked to produce design deliverables oriented to informing use.
In my current postdoctoral work I extend these lines of inquiry to the role of data economies in global politics and health innovation ecosystems, including especially the promises and practices that go into making digital health data available in Canada and the European Union through emerging health data spaces.
I have held policy, research, and advisory roles within the Ontario Ministry of Health, Women’s College Hospital, University of Toronto, and Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. I also maintain a keen interest in promoting broader research impact through blog posts, multimedia, toolkits, and policy papers.
My work has been published in leading interdisciplinary venues including Big Data & Society, Social Studies of Science, Science and Engineering Ethics, the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), and the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES).
I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Toronto.
Contact me: jdonia [at] josephdonia.com
Areas of Expertise
Digital Health, Data Ethics, Design Ethics, Technology Policy, AI Policy, Data Policy, Science & Technology Studies, Innovation Studies, Valuation Studies, Responsible Innovation
Recent Publications
Selective visibility in datafied states: Examining the absence and presence of the European Health Data Space, Social Science & Medicine, 2026
Can Canada learn from the European Health Data Space? Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2026
Anticipating ethical and social dimensions of the European Health Data Space, Health Policy, 2026
Making data markets: assetization, valuation, and proxy work in a digital health startup, Social Studies of Science, 2025
Algorithmic accountabilities and health systems: a review and sociomaterial approach, Big Data & Society, 2025
Lifecycles, pipelines, and value chains: toward a focus on events in responsible artificial intelligence for health, AI and Ethics, 2025