The AI Health Opportunity: Building Better Care Where Resources Are Scarce
About the session
What could AI make possible for health systems where people, money and infrastructure are already stretched?
Across global health, AI and digital technologies are opening up new possibilities: predicting infectious disease transmission, supporting overstretched health workers, improving patient records and continuity of care, verifying whether health services are actually reaching people, and helping researchers and public health leaders make better-informed decisions.
The opportunity is significant, particularly in underserved and low-resource settings. But making AI useful in practice requires more than introducing new tools. Solutions need to work within existing health systems, connect to national digital infrastructure, reflect the realities of patients and health workers, and strengthen rather than fragment care.
This session will explore where AI can make the greatest difference to health, what we are learning from implementation in the real world, and what governments, funders, researchers and technology partners need to get right if its benefits are to reach the people and health systems that need them most.
Discussion Group Leaders
Isabel Mares is Strategic Initiatives & External Relations Lead at American India Foundation, advancing equitable change across public health and sustainability through global partnerships, technology, and community-centered innovation.
Jenny Thornton is Head of Global Health Partnerships at Simprints, advancing partnerships that strengthen access to essential services through inclusive digital identity technology.
Malcolm Quigley is Director, Strategic Partnerships at PSI, advancing partnerships that expand access to effective health products, services, and solutions.
Rich Bryson is CEO at Spirit Health Foundation, enabling preventive healthcare in underserved communities by building smarter, tech-driven health systems in partnership with country governments.
Noelle Huskins Madden is Director at Camber Collective, advancing strategies that help organizations address complex social and public health challenges.
What to expect
A practical conversation about AI across healthcare and public health, from predictive modelling and research to patient records, health workforce digitisation and service delivery.
The emphasis will be on real-world applications and the conditions that allow technology to improve health outcomes, particularly in underserved and low-resource settings.
Who this is for
This session is for health leaders, governments, funders, researchers, technologists, implementers and public health practitioners interested in how AI and digital technology can strengthen healthcare and expand access in resource-constrained settings.
What you will get out of it
A view of where AI is creating meaningful opportunities across healthcare and public health
Examples spanning infectious disease, patient care, health workers and research
Insights into making AI useful in underserved and low-resource settings
A clearer understanding of the digital foundations needed to support AI-enabled healthcare
Connections across global health, technology, government and funding