ABSTRACT:
This is a proposal for an organized panel discussion to explore how rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to improve health and wellbeing within the framework of UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all at all ages. Speakers will examine how AI tools, when thoughtfully designed and implemented, can strengthen public health systems, expand access to care, and advance health equity. The session will highlight real-world examples of AI-powered predictive analytics for disease surveillance and outbreak forecasting, as well as tools that support strategic resource allocation for public health interventions to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In addition, case examples will showcase AI-driven telemedicine and virtual care models that extend services to remote and underserved communities, helping to reduce geographic, financial, and workforce barriers to high-quality care while supporting equity as a core public health value. At the same time, the session will critically examine key challenges to integrating AI into health and public health systems (ie data privacy and security concerns, algorithmic bias, lack of transparency etc.), and the practical difficulties of implementation in settings with limited infrastructure, training, and technical capacity. These challenges can exacerbate existing inequities if not proactively addressed. Speakers will offer concrete recommendations for policy, practice, and governance to ensure that AI initiatives are equitable, inclusive, and aligned with community needs and rights. Participants will identify the opportunities and risks of AI in health, along with actionable ideas for leveraging AI to advance SDG 3 and the 2030 pledge to “leave no one behind.” Invited speakers are in the process of being identified and are pending final confirmation for inclusion in this session proposal.