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Europe’s population is ageing, putting growing pressure on already stretched healthcare systems.
But what if the answer lies not just in being more efficient in treating illnesses, but in preventing them in the first place?
Artificial intelligence could help make that shift possible. But, as Ricardo Baptista Leite, CEO of HealthAI, the global agency for responsible AI, argues, it will take more than technology alone.
“If you retrofit AI into an inefficient system, it just makes you very efficient at being inefficient,” he told Euronews.
AI could help identify people at risk of developing certain conditions before they become ill, allowing healthcare providers to intervene earlier. But technology alone will not deliver that change.
“Technology is not going to save us alone,” says Baptista Leite, CEO of HealthAI. Healthcare systems also need to change the financial incentives that reward treatment rather than prevention.
Hospitals are often paid to treat patients, he argues, rather than to keep them healthy. Moving towards prevention would require new funding models that reward early intervention and proactive monitoring.
By analysing health data alongside social factors that influence health, AI could help identify people who may need support before their condition deteriorates.
The goal, Baptista Leite says, is not simply to save someone after a heart attack, but to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Ensuring safety
But scaling up AI in healthcare will depend on another factor: trust.
Patients and healthcare professionals need confidence that the technology is safe, and that its benefits outweigh the risks. That requires oversight that continues after a system has been approved and introduced into clinical practice.
Recently, the WHO Europe chief Hans Henri P. Kluge warned that while AI solutions are being deployed across European hospitals, only a few countries govern them, putting patients at risk.
Two-thirds of the 53 WHO Europe countries are already deploying AI diagnostics and half of the countries have AI-powered patient chatbots, but only a few — one in 12 — have strategies for how to govern AI.
That’s a “concerning” picture, Kluge said, stressing that this can take a toll on human health. “All of this erodes public trust in health systems more broadly,” he warned.
HealthAI is working with regulators in 10 countries to develop a global early warning system designed to identify adverse events and share information about emerging risks.
"These kinds of mechanisms will allow us to avoid harm at scale, if something does go wrong, so that we can detect it in time and keep citizens safe," he said.