HealthAI's participation in the first meeting of the GI-AI4H

HealthAI delegation in the inaugural meeting of the Global Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H).

The Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence for Health (GI-AI4H) was launched by three United Nations (UN) Specialized Agencies, namely the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Health Organization (WHO), and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in July 2023 at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. The first meeting of this initiative was recently held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, hosted by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) from Monday, 30 October, to Thursday, 2 November 2023. HealthAI was represented at the meeting by its CEO, Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite; CTO, Mr. Oliver Deak; and Chief Scientist, Dr. Peiling Yap.

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite presented HealthAI’s new strategy and vision on various plenaries and the team participated in several workshops discussing the need for regulation of AI in the health domain and the work of the initiative’s “Regulatory Considerations on AI for Health Working Group” going forward.

For everyone, everywhere

In the discussion with fellow GI-AI4H members on addressing governance challenges relating to AI in health, the need for global harmonization of regulatory standards was highlighted as a key development to avoid fragmentation and contradiction of the regulatory space. It was pointed out that member states have requested for guidance and technical assistance on local adaptation of regulatory standards and upon local implementation, feedback channels to reflect ground realities should also be established for further refinement of the standards. The need for guidance to overcome the administrative barrier so that more time and resources could be spent on true innovation was also reflected by the private sector participants, who emphasized that a regulatory balance that fosters innovation and access while ensuring safety should be achieved.

The advantages of establishing a global regulatory network for AI in health for knowledge exchange and early warning of adverse events were further discussed. Given that there is currently no gold standard in the regulation of AI in health, such a collaborative and inclusive network could accelerate the approval process to streamline expenses and bureaucracy, giving countries the joint capacity to regulate AI solutions in health as innovations surged.

Being an implementing partner for GI-AI4H, HealthAI has been nominated to co-chair the initiative’s “Regulatory Considerations on AI for Health Working Group”. Going forward, the working group will focus on promoting AI regulatory awareness and literacy across all stakeholders, establishing global harmonization of regulatory standards and providing concrete guidelines, methodologies and technical tools for the various elements of the regulation process. HealthAI looks forward to being part of this active community.