Ashley Thomas’ Post

🌍✨ Exciting developments in digital health! ✨🌍 On June 2nd, PATH and Digital Square at PATH convened at the 3rd Meeting of the G20 Brasil 2024 Health Working Group for a co-branded event, "AI for Science & Health: Ensuring Equitable Impact." Supported by the Wellcome Trust and co-hosted with the World Health Organization, GIDH, and the World Economic Forum, the event addressed how artificial intelligence (AI) can transform healthcare, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Discussions covered: 🤖 The role of AI in improving clinical decision support and medical product development 🌍 The importance of localizing digital innovations to benefit the Global South ⚠ Overcoming challenges such as algorithm biases, data quality issues, and privacy concerns Pictured below, Ana Estela Haddad, Secretary for Information and Digital Health for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, spoke to Brazil’s perspective on how the G20 can help facilitate and harness the potential of AI in LMICs: “It’s important that we work collaboratively together and with responsibility, especially when we think about ethical use of AI… and that we keep on working on an equitable way to develop strength in our health systems.” Our collective goal is to channel AI's potential while ensuring ethical considerations and equitable access to healthcare innovations. This event was a significant step towards a future where AI-driven solutions support global health equity. 🌐🩺 #G20Health #AI4Health #GlobalHealthEquity #DigitalHealth #DigitalTransformation

A first step towards the sustainable use of AI in healthcare ! Now we need to take this first white paper a step further and make it operational in this vital sector for everyone.

Emer Cooke, has the European Medicines Agency determined exactly what it deems the role of AI to be in relation to the regulation of medicines and revolutionising healthcare? I think this is a critical starting point as, unchecked, and with no clear focus on what AI should/shouldn't be doing, we may be walking blindfolded into a potential minefield. I recently saw a horrendous and quite sickening example of people, in this case the church, blindly jumping on the tech bandwagon. As shocking as it is to believe, but a church in Switzerland was using an "AI Jesus" to take confessions! I don't think I need to expand any further on the inappropriateness of this. But when it comes to revolutionising healthcare with tools like AI, I believe we must ALL keep a tight focus on the right area, i.e. improving the health of the individuals.

At a recent fireside chat with Jacki Davis during the European Health Summit in Brussels, we discussed how #digitalisation and #ArtificialIntelligence are revolutionising our healthcare systems and particularly the evaluation of medicines. I stressed that we should see #AI as a tool, not a magic solution and we needed human intelligence to help us ask the right questions. To be successful in the health care space, it will be important to adopt the same approaches across the entire ecosystem and this means we need to foster collaboration across sectors, both in Europe and globally. Here are some takeaways: 🚀 Opportunities and challenges: The explosion of access to health data presents immense opportunities to improve healthcare outcomes, but we need more interconnected and interoperable systems to harness the vast amounts of health data across Europe. ⚖️ Balancing regulation: The challenge lies in finding the right balance between enabling innovation and managing risks through adequate regulation. 📊 EMA's use of AI and healthcare data: Through initiatives like Scientific Explorer, EMA is demonstrating the potential of AI to improve processes and data analysis as well as better access to historical regulatory information. DARWIN EU allows us to leverage real-world evidence from 130 million patients to inform our regulatory decisions. 💡 Future proofing to support innovation: Strategic resourcing, upskilling of staff and experts, and seizing the opportunities to adopt more efficient digital procedures. 🎯 My vision for the future: Integrating AI, digitalisation and better data to improve our decision making and added value as regulators to serve European patients.  My call to action is - Let’s work together to unlock the potential of AI in creating a sustainable and competitive healthcare system in Europe! To watch the replay: https://lnkd.in/gWNUeuFQ #HealthcareInnovation #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalTransformation #EMA #FutureOfHealth

#AI made headlines throughout 2024 as the technology became more accessible and more integrated into everyday tasks. But what does the explosion of AI tools mean for the health care sector? At #GDHF2024, we asked some of our colleagues and partners to reflect on how AI is already changing health care delivery on the African continent—and what the global health community can do in the coming year to help ensure AI-enabled tools are safe, effective, and accessible for African health care settings. What key actions do you think are needed to accelerate the effective use of #AI4Health in 2025? Digital health innovators from PATH, Audere, Medtronic LABS, mymdoc, Kenya Paediatric Research Consortium - Keprecon, World Health Organization, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation share their insights ⏬ Dino Rech Anne Stake Wilkister Musau Nneka Mobisson Ambrose Agweyu Alain Labrique Melissa Miles Digital Square at PATH

For Europe to stay competitive in AI and Data we must match the development of regulation and guardrails with investments in research and development. Almost every project that we fund at @IHI makes use of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics and over the years we have supported the development of many large, important datasets - from deep phenotyped cohorts, via mobile devices to Real World Data. A key question for Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) - and for many other funding organisations - is how these datasets can be used to drive European innovation into safe, unbiased AI tools that makes a difference to patients and healthcare systems. Our unique model of large public-private partnership allow the many groups that must have a say - patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, regulators and industry - to join forces and drive innovation in an open, trusted environment.   Looking forward to speaking on this topic at the European Tech Sovereignty Summit at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs today and contribute to the roundtable on "AI for Health: a European story of innovation & shared sovereignty" with Yann-Mael Le Douarin, Head of the Health & Digital Transition department, Direction générale de l'offre de soins (DGOS) Derya Şahin, MD Health Policy Analyst & Advisor, OECD - OCDE Marc Julien, Managing Director - EIT Health France & Senior Director - Accelerator EIT Health #AIforHealth

We are proud to join HealthAI - The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health Community of Practice, a groundbreaking initiative focused on #AIgovernance and regulation in #Health. As part of this Community of Practice, we are collaborating with a global network of multidisciplinary actors to: ✅ Share knowledge, good practices, and evidence on #ResponsibleAI. ✅ Promote the equitable and coherent development of regulatory capacity worldwide. ✅ Move beyond discussion to action, working together to strengthen governance frameworks for AI in healthcare. Let’s work together to establish clear governance and regulatory frameworks that enable the safe, ethical, and effective integration of #AIinhealthcare for everyone, everywhere 🙌 Ricardo Baptista Leite, M.D. Peiling Yap Miguel Luengo-Oroz MARIA POSTIGO CAMPS

Building a global community is never easy—especially when it involves uniting stakeholders from over 50 countries with diverse perspectives and interests. So this launch has made me look back and reflect at what are a few key lessons from my first months of structuring the HealthAI Community of Practice (CoP): 1️⃣ Listen and learn directly from the source Ahead of the launch, I had the privilege of interviewing members to understand their perspectives and refine our CoP's concept and engagement model. It’s a win-win: members feel heard, and our approach stays member-centric and relevant. + I felt extra motivated to connect individually and learn from them. 2️⃣ Leverage tools for participation and accessibility For example, we offered meetings at multiple times to suit different time zones, chose a platform better for low-bandwidth users, and integrated live captions for accessibility. Small changes can make a big difference, although I am sure there is a lot that can and will still be done. 3️⃣ It’s not a one-person show A thriving community has to be built by a community. While roles aren’t fully shared, collaboration within our team was essential to brainstorm strategies and identify risks. Huge thanks to our Core Team (Peiling Yap, Paul Campbell, Amanda Leal, Stephan Dupré) for adding incredible value to this process! 4️⃣ Start simple and grow from there When ambition runs high, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by what could be done. But focusing on our resources, staying humble (as we don't yet have the full picture of what works), and treating the early months as a learning phase allowed us to lay a solid foundation for the CoP. These are just a few takeaways, and there are so many more. I’m extremely happy with the kick-off and the amazing colleagues at HealthAI that have made it a reality. And this is just the beginning! 😉

Harnessing the potential of GenAI in health innovation in a way that is safe and effective! 🙌🏽 Our CPO, Sarah Morris, explored this topic on a panel yesterday at the Global Digital Health Network Forum with esteemed thought-leaders in healthcare from Google Health, Medtronic, Digital Umuganda, and the World Health Organization. Some of the Key takeouts: 💡Fred Hersch (Google Health): High-quality data and accurate labels are crucial for GenAI models, especially in high-stakes scenarios  💡 Anne Stake (Medtronic): Choosing the right use case avoids wasting resources, and foundational infrastructure like DPI is vital for scaling GenAI 💡Garrett Mehl (WHO): GenAI must be designed to avoid reinforcing inequities and biases in global health 💡Sarah Morris (Audere): It’s critical to understand the nuances of the audience you are building these tools for and prioritize investment in robust monitoring for safety when deployed 💡 Samuel Rutunda (Digital Umaganda): Prioritize investment in native language datasets, measure accuracy, and consider trade-offs with cost to consider viability of your use case Thank you to PATH Chief AI Officer Bilal A Mateen for putting together and moderating such a great discussion! It’s all about creating equitable, locally grounded solutions that can be scaled for global health challenges 🙌🏽 What are your thoughts on the role of GenAI in advancing healthcare? #GDHF2024

Localising Real World Data (RWD) in the healthcare sector is highly strategic to help with proper diagnosis, accurate forecasting (that should help in putting preventive measures in place) within our locality as well as speeding up appropriate treatment plans as due. Also, it is to the advantage of our local institutions if utilised and yes! ofcourse, if used for training models would position them for higher degree of predictive accuracy. I can't agree more to the need for us to tap into the potentials of AI by leveraging on it to bring "timely heathcare to everyone's fingertips".