Onsite and online panelists of the GLC4HSR session “Future-Proofing Healthcare: Digital Strategies for Resilience” gather for a group photo at the end of the panel.

New Delhi, India – The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) co-hosted and participated as a knowledge partner in the session “Future-Proofing Healthcare: Digital Strategies for Resilience” at the third annual conclave of the Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience (GLC4HSR), organized by ACCESS Health International, on March 12, 2025. 

The session opened with two expert presentations. Dr. Karthik Adapa, Regional Advisor for Digital Health at the World Health Organization South East Asia Regional Office (WHO SEARO), presented on the topic “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare: Applications, Challenges and Ethical Considerations.” Following this, Andrew Willshire, Head of Healthcare Public Policy APJ at Amazon Web Services, discussed “Empowering Healthcare Resilience through Cloud Solutions.”

The session continued with a panel discussion on “Global Perspective on AI in Healthcare: Governance, Ethics and Impact,” chaired by Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran, Executive Director of AeHIN. The panel featured six experts; two participated in person, and four joined virtually. AeHIN played a key role in bringing together panelists from Pan African Health Informatics Association (HELINA), Transform Health, and HealthAI, fostering a diverse and insightful discussion.

The panel aimed to:

  1. Examine the current regulatory landscape in digital health and AI
  2. Highlight health data governance (HDG) frameworks
  3. Discuss strategies for building trust in digital health
  4. Explore responsible AI adoption in healthcare 
  5. Facilitate a multi-stakeholder dialogue on these critical issues 

Udayasankaran talks about digital health convergence workshops, one of AeHIN’s capacity-building activities.

Udayasankaran opened the discussion with a quick overview of AeHIN and its collaborative work with countries in the Asian region, such as convergence workshops, to provide support to national digital health programs.

Udayasankaran guided the discussion by inviting each panelist to share their insights in response to his questions. Supriya Cotra Prabhakar, Technical Head for Digital Health at ACCESS Health International, opened the conversation with a brief overview, setting the context for the discussion. In the first segment, which focused on governance and ethics, Steven Wanyee, President of HELINA, highlighted the ethical challenge that AI governance in health must address immediately. 

In the data governance and innovation segment, Dr. Peiling Yap, Chief Scientist of Health AI, emphasized the need for transparency and explainability in AI systems for healthcare. She underscored the importance of regulations and standards in ensuring the responsible adoption of AI. Following this, Dr. Aida Karazhanova, Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), introduced the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) initiative, which aims to enhance connectivity and digital resilience across the region.

In the segment of cross-border collaborations, Xin Rou Teh, AeHIN Secretariat in Malaysia, shared AeHIN’s efforts towards facilitating in-country dialogues (Malaysia, Philippines and Sri Lanka) and regional engagement on HDG. She highlighted the active involvement of AeHIN Working Council members in inviting high-level stakeholders into the conversation. From a global perspective, Kirsten Mathieson, Deputy Director & Policy Lead at Transform Health, discussed the work on HDG principles, the Model Law on HDG, and ongoing work towards securing endorsement for a global health data governance framework at the World Health Assembly. 

This session brought together experts from diverse backgrounds, fostering meaningful discussions on the rapid evolution of AI in healthcare while highlighting the crucial role of health data governance. The key takeaway was the need for trust, transparency, ethics, and good governance to ensure AI’s responsible and effective integration into healthcare systems.

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