The Innovation Forum AI Podcast

Oliver Morgan

The Innovation Forum AI Podcast explores how artificial intelligence is transforming public health — from early detection of outbreaks to effective health communication and smarter response strategies. Grounded in real-world practice, we highlight opportunities and challenges that matter for global preparedness. A podcast for public health professionals — from policymakers to technical specialists — who want to explore how AI tools can be applied to real-world public health challenges. Oliver Morgan is a Global Health Executive with over 25 years of experience in pandemic preparedness and response and strategic innovation. He has experience across a range of high-stakes global public health situations at country, regional, and global levels with the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oliver has led work on pandemic preparedness, global health leadership, and innovation for surveillance systems, analytics, and public health decision-making. As an executive coach, he supports senior leaders in navigating complex environments and developing leadership for impact.

  1. 16h ago

    Building AI From the Ground Up by Starting With What Is Missing

    🧠 Episode Summary Oliver Morgan speaks with Abdoulaye Diack, Program Manager at Google Research Ghana, where he leads the application of AI solutions in the Global South, spanning geospatial intelligence, language technology and disease forecasting. The conversation begins with outbreak response. Abdoulaye describes how geospatial data, combined with anonymized health data records, can help publich health officials move from a reactive to a proactive approach, drawing on work with WHO teams and a geospatial reasoning agent built on Google Earth AI. He also discusses how AI models can be stress tested across countries with different systems, and why open data helps. From there, the discussion turns to mapping and language. Abdoulaye explains how AI and satellite imagery were used to map 1.8 billion buildings through the Open Buildings project, and how that data has supported vaccination campaigns, electrification planning and disaster response. He also describes the WAXAL speech dataset and what it takes to build AI that works with African languages, dialects and noisy real-world settings. The episode also covers open-weight models in health settings, including an offline tuberculosis screening tool developed by a South African startup, and the talent and ecosystem needed to build AI locally. Abdoulaye argues that scarce data can push researchers to innovate, and closes with advice for ministries of health: invest in the foundations, from digital data collection and local language datasets to people and research. --- 💬 Guest Abdoulaye Diack is a Program Manager at Google Research Ghana, where he leads applied research projects focused on developing AI solutions for the Global South. His work spans a variety of areas, from integrating African languages into the digital world to mapping over 1.8 billion structures to improve humanitarian response and piloting predictive AI for disease surveillance with the WHO. Abdoulaye is passionate about leveraging AI to tackle some of Africa's most pressing challenges and empowering the continent's growing tech ecosystem. --- 🌐 Resources and References - Google Earth AI: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/health/google-earth-ai/; https://research.google/blog/earth-ais-planetary-geospatial-foundation-models-for-global-public-health/ - Population Dynamics Foundation Model: https://github.com/google-research/population-dynamics - DRC Ebola Bundibugyo dashboard: https://inrb-umie.github.io/BDBV2026-Epidemic_Dashboard/ - Open Buildings: https://sites.research.google/gr/open-buildings/; AI-powered maps: https://blog.google/technology/research/open-buildings-ai-powered-maps-for-a-changing-world/ - WorldPop: https://www.worldpop.org/ - Sunbird AI: https://sunbird.ai/from-satellite-to-settlement-how-google-earth-ai-and-ugandas-ministry-of-energy-are-rewriting-rural-grid-planning/ - WAXAL: https://research.google/blog/waxal-a-large-scale-open-resource-for-african-language-speech-technology/; WAXAL speech dataset: https://huggingface.co/datasets/google/WaxalNLP - Gemma open models: https://ai.google.dev/gemma - AfriMed-QA: https://research.google/blog/afrimed-qa-benchmarking-large-language-models-for-global-health/ - Nexus Intelligence: https://blog.google/intl/en-africa/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/meet-the-pretoria-team-using-ai-to-spot-lung-disease-in-as-little-as-45-seconds/ - MedGemma Impact Challenge winners: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/health/med-gemma-impact-challenge/ - Nowcasting on Search in Africa: https://blog.google/intl/en-africa/products/explore-get-answers/nowcasting-on-search-is-bringing-ai-powered-weather-forecasts-to-users-across-africa/ - WeatherNext: https://deepmind.google/science/weathernext/ 🎵 Music Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: YAUFQPRCJSTGZ3M1. ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates.

    Building AI From the Ground Up by Starting With What Is Missing

  2. Oct 22

    Building AI Policy Into Everyday Public Health Practice

    🎙️ Episode Title Building AI Policy Into Everyday Public Health Practice --- 🧠 Episode Summary Oliver Morgan speaks with Ari Whiteman, PhD, MSc, Senior Advisor for Public Health Informatics & AI at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) in the United States. Drawing on ASTHO's work supporting state and territorial health agencies across the country, Ari walks through where AI adoption actually stands today, from administrative use cases to the far rarer cases of disease surveillance, and what a decentralized, state-by-territory health system means for how that adoption spreads, or doesn't. The conversation covers the gap between adopting an AI policy and actually running AI day to day, the tradeoffs between proprietary and open-weight models when sensitive health data is on the line, the case for building an exit plan into any AI pilot from day one, why peer-to-peer trust between jurisdictions may matter more than top-down guidance, and the concrete resources ASTHO makes available to help agencies move from curiosity to practice. --- 💬 Guest Ari Whiteman, PhD, MSc, is Senior Advisor for Public Health Informatics & AI at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). He is an epidemiologist and surveillance advisor with ten years of experience in global and domestic public health strengthening, focused on applying digital health solutions, including GIS, machine learning, and AI, to surveillance, preparedness, and response. Before joining ASTHO, Ari was a Senior Epidemiologist at CDC's Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program, and has also consulted for the World Health Organization and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia. --- 🌐 Resources and References - ASTHO, AI in Public Health hub: https://www.astho.org/topic/ai-in-public-health/ - ASTHO AI in Public Health Resource Library: https://www.astho.org/topic/ai-in-public-health/resource-library - The State of AI in Public Health: New Data from the 2025 ASTHO Profile: https://www.astho.org/topic/resource/2026/state-of-ai-in-public-health/ - The Gap Between State and Territorial AI Policies and Public Health Practice (ASTHO): https://www.astho.org/communications/blog/2026/gap-between-state-and-territorial-ai-policies-and-public-health-practice/ - 12 Things Health Agencies Need to Know About Enterprise AI (ASTHO): https://www.astho.org/communications/blog/2026/12-things-health-agencies-need-to-know-about-enterprise-ai/ - PubHealth Futures Network: https://pubhealthfutures.org/ - AIxPH: Artificial Intelligence and Public Health Conference, Baltimore, October 2026 (NNPHI): https://nnphi.org/events/aixph-1st-annual-conference-on-artificial-intelligence-and-public-health/ --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: NO3YOFIWRKGTMZ00. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. --- 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow, rate, and share to help us reach more public health professionals exploring the future of AI.

    Building AI Policy Into Everyday Public Health Practice

  3. Oct 9

    The many forces behind good public health AI

    🎙️ Episode Title The many forces behind good public health AI --- 🧠 Episode Summary Oliver Morgan speaks with Dr Danil Mikhailov, Chairman of Mantis NLP and co-founder of the Institute for Community AI Research (I-CAIR). Drawing on his years as the first Head of Data & Innovation at the Wellcome Trust and later as CEO of data.org, Danil walks through where AI is already changing the back office of science, from grant classification to policy tracking, and what that experience taught him about building AI responsibly, from the inside of an engineering team out to entire communities. The conversation covers where AI is already changing how science gets organised and funded, the practical choice between large general purpose models and smaller specialist ones, the unglamorous data work that has to happen before any model can be trusted, what it takes to embed ethical review inside a fast moving engineering team without it becoming just a formality, the case for treating AI as a problem for communities rather than individuals, and why language remains one of the least visible but most consequential gaps in how AI systems get built. --- 💬 Guest Danil Mikhailov, Ph.D., is Chairman of Mantis NLP and co-founder of the Institute for Community AI Research (I-CAIR). He was the first Head of Data & Innovation at the Wellcome Trust, where he founded and led Wellcome Data Labs, and later served as CEO of data.org. He co-founded and chaired the Global Pandemic Data Alliance, formed under the auspices of the G7 to strengthen the world's pandemic and epidemic data infrastructure, which helped launch the Epiverse initiative. Danil holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Communications from Brunel University London, and master's degrees in Philosophy (Birkbeck, University of London) and Chinese Studies (SOAS, University of London). --- 🌐 Resources and References - Mantis NLP: https://www.mantisnlp.com/about-us/ - Institute for Community AI Research (I-CAIR): https://data.org/initiatives/i-cair/ - I-CAIR playbook on responsible data and AI implementation in LMICs: https://data.org/playbooks/icair/ - Data.org: https://data.org/ - Epiverse: https://data.org/our-work/epiverse/ - Playbook for digitisation of oral data for NLP of low resource languages: https://data.org/reports/digitisation-of-oral-data-for-nlp-of-low-resource-languages/ - Global Pandemic Data Alliance: https://royalsociety.org/news/2021/09/global-pandemic-data-alliance/. - Integrating Ethics into Data Science: Insights from a Product Team (Mankoo, Spengeman and Mikhailov): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4077031 - Reach, Wellcome Data Labs policy-tracing tool: https://github.com/wellcometrust/reach - Arshin Adib Moghaddam: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/arshin-adib-moghaddam - Patricia Tapia: https://data.org/people/patricia-v-tapia/ - SciBERT: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.10676 --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: WFZQPUWHLO26P1VL. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. --- 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow, rate, and share to help us reach more public health professionals exploring the future of AI.

    The many forces behind good public health AI

  4. Sep 25

    The Latin American Case for Rethinking AI in Public Health

    🎙️ Episode Title The Latin American Case for Rethinking AI in Public Health --- 🧠 Episode Summary Oliver Morgan speaks with Zulma Cucunubá. Drawing on years of work in data analytics and mathematical modelling across vector-borne diseases, vaccine-preventable diseases, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Zulma walks through where she sees AI genuinely adding value for public health in the region, and where the expectations still outrun the reality. The conversation covers what it actually takes to move an AI-for-health project from pilot to routine practice, how an initiative that predates today's AI-for-health conversation is adapting to it, the gap in public health workforce training, why most existing evidence standards for AI were built for clinical settings in upper-income countries, how AI technologies might be regulated the way drugs and diagnostics already are, and why "responsible AI" should mean something more demanding, not less, in a region that won't meet standards designed for other realities. Zulma closes with a candid look at the true, often underestimated cost of implementing AI systems in the public sector. --- 💬 Guest Zulma Cucunubá is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Public Health Institute at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, and an Honorary Lecturer at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London. Her work sits at the intersection of mathematical modelling, open data, and software development for epidemic response. She co-leads Epiverse TRACE-LAC, an open-source ecosystem of software, analytics, and training that gives ministries and national institutes across Latin America and the Caribbean the capacity to run their own outbreak analytics. Her COVID-19 modelling informed Colombia's national and subnational control strategies, and she serves on the Collaboratory Technical Advisory Group at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. --- 🌐 Resources and References - Institute of Public Health, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: https://www.javeriana.edu.co/ins-salud-publica/nosotros - Observatory of Responsible Use of AI, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: https://www.javeriana.edu.co/ins-bioetica/ia-responsable/-/document_library/s4tZYwhTY1b1/view/2490234 - Epiverse TRACE-LAC: https://epiverse-trace.github.io/index.html - PAHO regional study on AI and the health workforce: https://www.paho.org/en/news/18-11-2025-artificial-intelligence-and-health-workforce-paho-presents-results-regional-study - PAHO cycle on artificial intelligence in health: https://www.paho.org/en/news/12-2-2026-paho-launches-cycle-ii-artificial-intelligence-health-strengthen-digital - Lancet Commission on Strengthening the Use of Epidemiological Modelling of Emerging and Pandemic Infectious Diseases: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02758-7/abstract02758-7/abstract) - IDRC Artificial Intelligence for Development: https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/initiative/artificial-intelligence-development - ACCELERATE 2026 Conference. AI and Data for Social Good with a focus on Public Health and Financial Inclusion. https://data.org/get-involved/accelerate-conference/ --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: 3TV02TMUHJAZHYDT. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow, rate, and share to help us reach more public health professionals exploring the future of AI.

    The Latin American Case for Rethinking AI in Public Health

  5. Sep 10

    The Quiet Infrastructure Behind Responsible AI in Health

    🎙️ Episode Title The Quiet Infrastructure Behind Responsible AI in Health --- 🧠 Episode Summary Eric Sutherland leads the OECD's work on AI in health, drawing on years of experience in health data governance that began with leading Canada's pan-Canadian health data strategy. In this episode, he brings that experience to a single question: what does it actually take to move AI in health from experimentation to real, responsible scale? His answer starts with a metaphor he returns to throughout the conversation: health data, digital infrastructure, and AI are the water, the pipes, and the taps of the same system. Missing pipes means mud. Missing taps means flow with no pressure. And without water, even the best-looking infrastructure delivers no value at all. For Eric, treating these as three separate policy tracks, rather than one connected system, is one of the biggest risks he sees some countries taking today. That thinking runs through the OECD's own policy checklist for scaling AI in health, built not as a list of requirements, but as a set of questions for countries to ask themselves. The gap it's meant to address is real: fewer than a third of OECD countries currently have formal AI governance structures or workforce upskilling programs in place for health, even as seven countries have already developed dedicated AI-in-health strategies. The conversation keeps returning to trust, culminating in Eric's account of a recent international conference in Madrid, where 140 experts worked to translate all of this into a concrete Action Plan. His closing message is cautiously optimistic: scale will only happen at the pace of trust, but the collaboration needed to build that trust is already starting to take shape. --- 💬 Guest Eric Sutherland is Senior Health Economist at the OECD, where he leads the OECD's work on Digitalisation of Health and coordinates the OECD AI in Health Expert Group. He is a co-author of the OECD's 2026 report and policy checklist, Scaling Artificial Intelligence in Health. Before joining the OECD, he led work on Canada's pan-Canadian health data strategy. He took part in a recent international, expert-led conference with Spain's Ministry of Health, held in Madrid in May 2026, to develop an Action Plan for the responsible scale of AI in healthcare. --- 🌐 Resources and References - OECD (2026), Scaling Artificial Intelligence in Health: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/scaling-artificial-intelligence-in-health_a436e12d-en/full-report.html - Does Healthcare Deliver? Results from the Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS): https://doi.org/10.1787/c8af05a5-en - European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS): https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/european-health-data-space-regulation-ehds_en - Conference on the Responsible Scale of AI in Healthcare, Madrid, 28–29 May 2026: https://www.sanidad.gob.es/en/areas/saludDigital/eventosJornadas/Jornada/IAenSalud_OCDE-MSAN.htm --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: GHJNMYCZOQXJ2QRI --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. --- 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow, rate, and share to help us reach more public health professionals exploring the future of AI.

    The Quiet Infrastructure Behind Responsible AI in Health

  6. Jul 6

    What Good AI Governance for Public Health Actually Requires

    🎙️ Episode Title What Good AI Governance for Public Health Actually Requires --- 🧠 Episode Summary Anne Makena has spent nearly a decade building equitable research partnerships between Oxford and African institutions, co-creating the African AI Governance Index, and launching Research Alpha to strengthen the evidence base behind AI investment in health. In this episode she brings all of that experience to bear on a single question: what does it actually take to deploy AI responsibly in public health? Her answer is grounded and unsparing. The governance conversation is already happening across Africa — the problem is whether anyone is listening. AI tools are being deployed without asking what problem they are solving, whether the data reflects the context, or who is accountable when things go wrong. And the innovation ecosystem, she argues, is being built on a borrowed mattress in a rented house: without a strong research and evidence base, no tool will sustain. The episode closes with a message of cautious optimism. The resources, the frameworks, and the talent exist. What is needed now is the humility to ask the right questions — starting with the people the tools are meant to serve. --- 💬 Guest Anne Makena is founder and CEO of Research Alpha, a platform providing scientific advisory and technical due diligence for Africa-focused capital allocators. She is Director of Partnerships and Development at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and Senior Adviser to the Africa Oxford Initiative at the University of Oxford, where she spent nearly a decade as Co-Director building equitable research and innovation partnerships across more than 30 African countries. She is co-creator of the African AI Governance Index, which tracks AI governance readiness across all 55 African Union member states. --- 🌐 Resources and References - Research Alpha: https://researchalpha.ai/ - Research Alpha RAIN Fellowship Programme**:** https://researchalpha.ai/research-industry-collaborations - University of Global Health Equity (UGHE): https://ughe.org/ - Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx): https://www.afox.ox.ac.uk/ - Partners in Health: https://www.pih.org/ - Institute of Development Studies, Sussex: https://www.ids.ac.uk/ - STANDING Together (data diversity standards): https://www.datadiversity.org/ - World Health Organization regulatory maturity (Global Benchmarking Tool): https://www.who.int/ - African AI Governance Index: https://africanaigovernanceindex.com - Africa's deep tech boom rests on a fragile research ecosystem: https://www.nature.com/articles/d44148-026-00016-z - Africa AI Council: https://digitalhealth-africa.org/smart-africa-endorses-africa-ai-council/ - Real world trials of AI-enabled clinical decisions support tools in Africa: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04503-6 --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: JKVN8JFYPINF4EKW. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. --- 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Follow, rate, and share to help us reach more public health professionals exploring the future of AI.

    What Good AI Governance for Public Health Actually Requires

  7. Jun 20

    From Genomes to Governance: Lessons from India on Building AI-Ready Public Health Systems

    🎙️ Episode Title From Genomes to Governance: Lessons from India on Building AI-Ready Public Health Systems --- 🧠 Episode Summary In this episode of The Innovation Forum AI Podcast, Oliver Morgan speaks with Anurag Agrawal, Professor and Dean of Biosciences and Health Research at Ashoka University in New Delhi. A physician-scientist with deep experience in respiratory biology, genomics, and data-driven health governance, Anurag draws on his leadership of India's National Genomic Surveillance Network during COVID-19 and his role as Vice President of Science Policy at the Indian National Science Academy to reflect on what it takes to build public health intelligence systems that are technically robust and institutionally grounded. The conversation opens with the Delta wave: how the focus on tracking Alpha left Delta undetected until clinical impacts had begun, exposing the gap between having genomic data and integrating it with clinical information in real time. Anurag traces India's evolution from fragmented sequencing efforts to a coordinated national consortium, and is candid about what remains missing: integrated electronic health records and cohort data linked to genomic surveillance. On AI, he is precise about both the promise and the limits. Foundation models hold real potential for mutation impact prediction, but fail at the tails of the distribution — exactly where novel pathogens emerge. His response is architectural: keep sensitivity high, route alerts to domain experts as humans on the loop rather than merely in it, and build institutional capacity to act under uncertainty. The episode also covers the dual-use risks of AI in biology, world models as an alternative to pure pattern recognition, and India's governance framework built on risk-calibrated innovation. Anurag closes with a deliberately grounded answer: the most important investment is getting the small things right, and rebuilding global cooperation. --- 💬 Guest Anurag Agrawal is Professor and Dean of Biosciences and Health Research at Ashoka University in New Delhi. A physician-scientist trained in respiratory biology and genomics, he led India's National Genomic Surveillance Network (INSACOG) during the COVID-19 pandemic and chaired the WHO advisory group that developed the global framework for evaluating new SARS-CoV-2 variants. He currently serves as Vice President of Science Policy at the Indian National Science Academy. His work spans pathogen genomics, data infrastructure for public health, AI governance, and the responsible integration of AI into health systems in low- and middle-income country settings. He has been involved in initiatives including the Lancet Commission on Data Solidarity and India's national AI for health strategy. --- 🌐 Resources and References - Ashoka University, Biosciences and Health Research: https://www.ashoka.edu.in/ - INSACOG: https://dbt.gov.in/insacog/. I believe this is the right link but can´t seem to access it, please confirm which one is the right one. - Indian National Science Academy (INSA): https://www.insaindia.res.in/ - Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: https://abdm.gov.in/ --- 🎵 Music Credits Intro and outro music from Async Stock Audio. Track: 'Nairobi Nights'. License code: DBHAXH7OM6OTIDCQ. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative: https://pandemichub.who.int/news-room/innovation-forum. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice. --- 📲 Listen and Subscribe The Innovation Forum AI Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. You can find a written summary of this episode here: https://substack.com/@omorgan? Follow, rate, and share.

    From Genomes to Governance: Lessons from India on Building AI-Ready Public Health Systems

  8. Jun 4

    African Data for African Health: Building the AI Foundations the Continent Needs

    🎙️ Episode Title African Data for African Health: Building the AI Foundations the Continent Needs --- 🧠 Episode Summary In this episode, Oliver Morgan speaks with Agnes Kiragga, Head of the Data Science Program at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Drawing on over two decades of experience building data systems and leading large-scale multi-country initiatives across the continent, Agnes reflects on what it takes to make AI work in African public health — not as a concept, but in practice, inside real institutions with real constraints. The conversation spans the full range of Agnes's work: from no-code AI platforms that bring real-time analytics to researchers without coding backgrounds, to AI-powered blood stock management systems in Cameroonian hospitals, to federated analysis platforms that allow data to be analyzed across borders without ever leaving its home institution. The episode addresses one of the most consequential gaps in global health AI: the underrepresentation of African datasets in the models being built for epidemic intelligence. Agnes argues that tools not trained on African data cannot capture the comorbidity burden, the linguistic diversity, or the epidemiological reality of African populations — and that the consequences range from missed diagnoses to wrong predictions during outbreaks. She also makes the case for a new generation of evaluation frameworks for large language models in African health contexts, where multi-turn, multilingual interactions are the norm, not the exception. Throughout, Agnes is clear-eyed about what is still missing — governance structures, infrastructure, skilled personnel — while pointing to the momentum building across the continent in training, tooling, and institutional capacity. Her core argument: AI for African health cannot be imported. It has to be built, evaluated, and owned from within. --- 💬 Guest Agnes Kiragga is Head of the Data Science Program at the APHRC in Nairobi, Kenya. With over 20 years of experience working with large and diverse health datasets across Africa, she leads the Data Science Without Borders project. She also leads the INSPIRE Network, a consortium of approximately 25 longitudinal Health and Demographic Surveillance System sites across Africa. Her work spans data harmonization, federated analysis, AI governance, and the responsible evaluation of AI tools in low- and middle-income country settings. She is a delivery partner for the Evidence for AI in Health initiative, which generates rigorous evidence on whether AI tools actually work in the contexts where they are deployed. --- 🌐 Resources and References - APHRC: https://aphrc.org/ - DSWB: https://dswb.africa; https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1695907 - INSPIRE Network: https://www.inspiredata.network/; https://aphrc.org/inspire/; https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/digital-health/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1329630/full - DataSHIELD: https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9149238/v1/30a60413-de69-4c32-9237-577e7690944c.pdf?c=1776244497 - EVAH: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/initiative/evidence-ai-health-evah-initiative - AfriMed-QA: https://afrimedqa.com/ - OHDSI common data model: https://www.ohdsi.org/ - AIMS: https://aims.ac.za/ - Data Science Africa: https://www.datascienceafrica.org/ - Deep Learning Indaba: https://deeplearningindaba.com/ - IDRC AI for Development: https://www.idrc.ca/en/initiative/artificial-intelligence-development --- 🎵 Music Credits Track: ‘Nairobi Nights’. License code: WPJKGDX60OHV0I2I. --- ⚠️ Disclaimer This podcast is produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Innovation Forum initiative. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily represent those of WHO or its affiliates. Content is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice.

    African Data for African Health: Building the AI Foundations the Continent Needs
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Ratings & Reviews

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3 Ratings

About

The Innovation Forum AI Podcast explores how artificial intelligence is transforming public health — from early detection of outbreaks to effective health communication and smarter response strategies. Grounded in real-world practice, we highlight opportunities and challenges that matter for global preparedness. A podcast for public health professionals — from policymakers to technical specialists — who want to explore how AI tools can be applied to real-world public health challenges. Oliver Morgan is a Global Health Executive with over 25 years of experience in pandemic preparedness and response and strategic innovation. He has experience across a range of high-stakes global public health situations at country, regional, and global levels with the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oliver has led work on pandemic preparedness, global health leadership, and innovation for surveillance systems, analytics, and public health decision-making. As an executive coach, he supports senior leaders in navigating complex environments and developing leadership for impact.

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