From Treatment to Prevention: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare in Russia, Asia and Africa
At the 2nd Global Digital Forum on October 9, participants took part in a practical workshop titled “Digital Transformation at the Forefront of Global Healthcare System Development: From Treating Diseases to Preventing Them.” The event was supported by the Center of Competence for Global IT Cooperation.
Experts presented examples of AI and digital platform implementation and discussed the challenges that arise when healthcare shifts its focus from treating diseases to preventing them.
Alexey Kushner, Chief Technology Officer at Cognitive Longevity, said one of the key tasks in digital medicine is to improve collaboration between doctors and IT professionals. Medical knowledge is currently stored in different formats, including documents, diagrams and PDFs. To use this information in digital systems and AI applications, it first needs to be organized. Russian specialists, for example, have already systematized 607 clinical guidelines and used them to create a vector database.
Rustam Yerizhokov, Head of the Research Department at the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine, presented a practical example of AI in healthcare. He discussed a Moscow computer vision experiment launched in 2020 during the pandemic, when radiologists faced a sharp increase in their workload.
“Over the past six years, the system has processed more than 19 million images, and AI technologies have been introduced in 45 clinical specialties. Today, more than 2,400 medical organizations across 70 Russian regions use these services. Each month, the system processes around 1.1 million examinations across six areas. The algorithms help doctors identify signs of disease. For example, using an algorithm alongside a doctor to analyze mammograms has saved Moscow around 240 million rubles [$2.8 million – ed. note],” Yerizhokov said.
Access to new technologies should be available to all countries and peoples. Cristina Amor Maclang, Co-Founder of the International Digital Economies Association (IDEA) from the Philippines, emphasized this point. She noted that longevity technologies should not be available only to people who can afford expensive services.
“We want to give everyone in Africa and Asia the same opportunity,” she said.
Maclang also announced an agreement with the Moscow Export Center that will help Moscow-based technologies enter foreign markets. The discussion then turned to protecting patients’ personal information. Paolo Borja, Co-Founder of Bio-T from the Philippines, said people may be concerned about data leaks.
“Transparency is key. People need to understand what data is being collected, for what purposes, how it will be stored and whether it will be adequately protected,” Borja stressed.
Data quality is directly linked to trust in medical AI. Lane Guolan Chen, Founder of Ai2Health Limited from Hong Kong, pointed out that algorithms are trained on available information, which does not always reflect the characteristics of different population groups.
“In the real world, more data is available in English and European languages. AI cannot be 100% accurate, especially when it comes to populations in African countries,” he said.
Beni Koy, Co-Founder of the international network Women in Tech DRC from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, described a service that connects doctors with blood banks. A young developer created it after a boy died while waiting for a blood transfusion. The system helps coordinate payment and drone delivery of blood, but expanding the project nationwide will require funding.
Brian Posadas, President of GIPDEX Inc. from the Philippines, highlighted the challenges of delivering medicines between islands and the fragmentation of medical data. Because systems are not coordinated, patients have to undergo tests more than once, while tracking medications remains difficult. He proposed connecting community, regional and government platforms to improve medication tracking and give healthcare professionals better access to data.
Kelly Bui, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BHub Group from Vietnam, noted that hospitals need not only IT specialists but also doctors to implement digital systems and electronic health records. International cooperation, she said, helps countries share experience and find solutions to common problems.
Workshop participants emphasized that digital transformation in healthcare involves more than introducing AI. It also requires high-quality data, personal information protection, accessible technologies and clear rules for their use. Medical decisions, however, must remain in the hands of doctors.
