On the 23^rd of May the 2^nd the National Scientific-Practical Conference titled “Digital Medicine 4.0: Challenges, Opportunities, and Prospects” was held through the joint organization of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Health Committee of the National Assembly, the National Oncology Center, Azerbaijan Medical University, the Institute of Information Technology of the Ministry of Science and Education, Azerbaijan Technical University and the Institute of Biophysics.

At the conference Director of the Institute of Folklore of ANAS, Associate Professor Hikmat Guliyev made a report “Medical Problems in the Context of Social Stereotypes and National Mental Values: From Folk Medicine to Digital Medical Folklore”.

In his presentation Associate Professor Hikmat Guliyev focused on changes occurring in folk culture in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital transformations and the application of artificial intelligence technologies. He mentioned the key issues emerging in this field and emphasized that socio-anthropological approaches in folklore studies offer a broad set of tools for examining the concepts of “folk” and “knowledge” from dynamic, communicative, and multicultural perspectives. From this standpoint, elements such as folk music, folk dances, folk meteorology and folk medicine draw attention as reflections of traditional thought.

H.Guliyev noted that folk medicine represents the body of traditional knowledge formed within a collective environment. It encompasses diagnostic, therapeutic (prophylactic) and preventive practices for various diseases, transmitted through traditional thinking frameworks and stereotypes, and supported by taboos, prohibitions, beliefs. He mentioned that “As research shows, social stereotypes and national mental values, along with societal pressure, conservatism, and aggressive reactions can result in the concealment of illness, delays in treatment, and life-threatening consequences within the collective social environment”.

The scholar also highlighted that in the current era of virtualization, traditional folk medical knowledge has been increasingly transferred into the digital space. Numerous social media pages and content related to this topic are now accessible online. Therefore, the study of digital medical folklore and the analysis of traditional folk knowledge presented in these resources are of vital importance today.