New Partnership to Guide AI Use in Global Health
A new philanthropic partnership will support locally led research to evaluate the use of AI tools in low- and middle-income countries. The initiative aims to generate evidence to guide the responsible and effective deployment of AI to improve health outcomes in these regions.
- The initiative, named "Evidence for AI in Health" (EVAH), is a US$60 million joint investment by the Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome. This marks the second investment from a broader US$300 million global health research and development partnership these organizations launched in 2024. - Implementation of the initiative is being carried out in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). - The first request for proposals specifically targets the evaluation of mature AI-enabled decision support tools for frontline workers in primary and community healthcare settings. Priority is given to tools trained on representative data and designed for resource-constrained environments. - The initial geographic focus for research proposals is on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. - The announcement was made at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, where Nigeria's minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, noted the collaboration will generate "critical insights to inform effective policymaking." - This partnership complements the work of multilateral standards bodies, such as the Global Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H), a collaboration launched in 2023 by the WHO, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to establish normative technical guidance and policies for AI in healthcare. - A key challenge the EVAH initiative aims to address is the "critical gap in evidence" on how AI performs in real-world settings
