AWS at the World Health Summit 2024: Driving digital health innovation and global collaboration

The World Health Summit 2024 served as a pivotal platform for global health leaders, policymakers, and innovators to address pressing healthcare challenges and explore cutting-edge solutions. With more than 3,500 participants from 140 countries, 21,000 online viewers, and 65,000-plus social-media engagements, the summit was a testament to the commitment of global healthcare leaders to addressing health inequities and improving patient outcomes.

As a strategic partner to the World Health Summit in 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS) showcased its efforts and commitment to transforming healthcare by using technology worldwide. Watch the following video for highlights.

Throughout the summit, AWS participated in several high-profile panel discussions and roundtables, focusing on key themes, such as data interoperability, artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, and scalable solutions for national health systems. In one session, The Role of Technology in National Scale Digital Health Transformation, a panel of global healthcare leaders, including Bettina McMahon, CEO of Healthdirect Australia; John Quinn, CIO of the NHS; Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health in India; Kee Yuan Ngiam, Chief Academic Informatics Officer for NUHS Singapore; Paula Xavier dos Santos, Director of SEIDIGI, MOH Brazil; and Dr. Alain Labrique, Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Department of Digital Health and Innovation, joined AWS representative, Dr. Jay Rajda, to discuss their transformation strategies for national digital health. Watch the session recording to get their insights.

During the summit, AWS also released a whitepaper, Expanding Horizons: Scalable Technology Solutions for National Healthcare, that includes several case studies of how global health agencies use AWS technology to drive national scale transformation. The whitepaper draws on the extensive experience that AWS has working with governments and healthcare organizations worldwide, offering practical insights into implementing secure, cost-effective, and scalable health IT systems. It provides a roadmap for countries looking to modernize their healthcare infrastructure using cloud-based solutions.

The summit also provided a valuable platform for AWS to foster new collaborations with global health organizations, academic institutions, and government agencies. These partnerships are crucial for driving innovation and making sure that cloud-based health solutions are tailored to meet diverse global needs. AWS hosted a roundtable discussion focused on fostering such partnerships and collaborations across the healthcare ecosystem to facilitate the appropriate use of advanced technologies, such as AI, to improve healthcare. The discussion, Unlocking AI’s Potential in Healthcare: A Public-Private Collaborative Journey, was attended by more than 40 global health leaders including several CEOs, ministers, and senior government health officials. Speakers included Dr. César Pascual Fernández, Minister of Cantabrian Health Service; Dr. Richard Scott, CEO of Genomics England; and Max Peterson and Jens Dommel, both from AWS.

In addition, AWS leaders participated in two panel discussions. Dr. Rowland Illing participated in a recorded panel discussion hosted by The Max Planck Society, Can AI Enhance Public Trust in Science? and Dr. Myriam Fernández Martín participated in a recorded panel discussion hosted by the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), AI and Digital Inclusion in Global Health.

Looking ahead to the future, AWS remains committed to driving digital health innovation and fostering global collaborations. We continue to partner with leading health organizations and provide the technological infrastructure needed to address the world’s pressing health challenges.