Health: Digital innovation for sustainable global health systems

Health systems in Africa and Europe are facing growing pressure from demographic change, the rise of chronic and infectious diseases, and constrained human resources. At the same time, they are generating ever larger volumes of clinical, genomic, environmental, and administrative data. When used responsibly, this data – combined with digital tools, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) – can help extend the reach and quality of care, support overstretched health workers, and improve planning and resilience.

Many African countries, however, face a severe shortage of specialised health professionals across disciplines such as pathology, radiology, oncology, and mental health. In some settings there may be fewer than one specialist for several million people, making timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment extremely difficult, even when medicines or technologies are available. Digital health and AI offer a way to support and augment scarce expertise, but only if solutions are designed with local needs, infrastructures, and governance frameworks in mind.

To ensure that African countries benefit fully from advances in digital health and AI, research and innovation collaboration between Africa and Europe is essential. This includes:

• developing tools for decision support, diagnostics, surveillance, and health system management that are tailored to African contexts;

• strengthening digital infrastructure, connectivity, and cybersecurity for health;

• training health professionals, data scientists, and engineers in both continents;

• co-designing solutions that respect cultural norms, languages, and patient pathways.

A key element is the creation of secure, trusted environments for health data within partner countries. Rather than exporting sensitive data abroad, collaborative models can “bring algorithms to the data”: African institutions retain data under their own legal and ethical frameworks, while African and European researchers work together through secure platforms to train and test algorithms in situ. This approach supports data sovereignty, patient trust, and long-term capacity building.

To make such models viable at scale, collaboration should be accompanied by clear legal frameworks, ethical standards, and fair benefit-sharing arrangements, so that populations contributing data also benefit from resulting tools, services, and knowledge. EU programmes such as Horizon Europe (and its successor FP10), Global Gateway, NDICI–Global Europe, and health-related missions and partnerships provide concrete opportunities for joint Africa–Europe projects in these areas.

Within this landscape, AERAP can help connect African and European partners working on digital and data-driven health, by:

• organising workshops, roundtables, and sessions at the Science Summit and other events focused on digital health, AI, and health data governance;

• sharing information on relevant EU calls and initiatives, helping African institutions to join or form international consortia;

• facilitating networking and knowledge exchange between hospitals, universities, research institutes, public health agencies, and technology providers across both continents;

• showcasing successful pilots and use cases that demonstrate how Africa–Europe cooperation can strengthen health systems, improve diagnosis and care, and build local digital capacity.

In this way, digital innovation in health becomes not just a technological agenda, but a shared Africa–Europe collaboration space, where data, AI, and human expertise are combined to build more resilient, equitable, and sustainable health systems.

Contact:

Univ. Prof. Dr. Kurt Zatloukal