I-DAIR Welcomes New CEO: Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite
The International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR), based in Switzerland, hosted a welcome reception for I-DAIR’s new CEO, Ricardo Baptista Leite on May 24 alongside the World Health Assembly, attended by stakeholders including honorable members of Parliament, ministries of health, WHO, and partners. Ricardo officially joined I-DAIR on May 22, 2023.
From left to right: Dr. Aline Cossy-Gantner (Fondation Botnar), Prof. Alain Labrique (WHO), Dr. Mehdi Snène (I-DAIR),
Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite (I-DAIR), Ms. Anne Hassberger (I-DAIR), Dr. Christoph Benn (JLI).
Fondation Botnar, a founding funder of I-DAIR, represented by Aline Cossy-Gantner, expressed their support for Ricardo and I-DAIR, “We are strongly looking forward to collaborating with you to see how many other stakeholders you are going to bring together to consolidate this platform and really become a global research platform across the disciplines”.
Christoph Benn, I-DAIR’s board chair, said “I couldn’t be more thrilled than to be able to introduce Ricardo who is also a good friend for many years. I think you will bring enormous experience, skills, dynamism, and energy to I-DAIR, taking it to new heights.”
“I think you will bring enormous experience, skills, dynamism, and energy to I-DAIR, taking it to new heights.”
Dr. Alain Labrique, director of digital health and innovation at WHO, was present, congratulating the new CEO with whom he looks forward to working with and reiterating the desire for collaboration.
Ricardo shared experiences that shaped his outlook on the health sector, from his father’s influence and technical roots learning the BASIC programming language as a child, to the influence of his careers in medicine, science, academia and politics in adulthood. Over time “it became very clear the need for us to work and develop more partnerships and to work in a more collaborative manner. And in the policy space for global Health, this was much needed.”
He shared his motivation to become CEO of I-DAIR, including “the moment we are living in with this cutting-edge technology, the amazing rise of artificial intelligence and balancing out the opportunities and challenges. But at the same time, the driving passion of everything I've done in my life is working towards breaking the disease-driven health systems, towards having systems that are promoting health and well-being and quality of life. Today, particularly in regions that have less resources, technology will be potentially one of the main tools that will deliver the health system transformation that we all, being here at the World Health Assembly, aim to achieve. To be at the forefront of a neutral platform like I-DAIR, working on digital health and artificial intelligence for the global health ecosystem, fostering networking and collaborative research, is a tremendous opportunity.”
Dr. Baptista Leite and the I-DAIR team will co-create a new organizational strategy. This new strategy will be ready by September for I-DAIR’s board approval.
Read more about Ricardo Baptista Leite’s background here.
