Research priorities for data science and artificial intelligence in global health: an international consensus exercise.

Peige Song, Denan Jiang, Jiali Zhou, Yajie Zhu, Rosliza Abdul Manaf, Danladi Adamu Bojude, Marie Laurette Agbre-Yace, Sajjad Ali, Omolade Allen, Anayochukwu Edward Anyasodor, Zeus Aranda, Awsan Bahattab, Adams Bodomo, Florencia Borrescio-Higa, Marie Buchtova, Nataša Buljan, Vaishali Deshmukh, Lina Díaz-Castro, Sohaila Cheema, Winifred Ekezie, Kurubaran Ganasegeran, Balasankar Ganesan, Anton Glasnović, Christopher J Graham, Mila Nu Nu Htay, Chinonso Igwesi-Chidobe, Per Ole Iversen, Mohammad Mainul Islam, Abdulkarim Jafar Karim, Brane Kalpič, Oluchi Kanma-Okafor, Giuseppe Lanza, Saturnino Luz, Wiriya Mahikul, Dunja Mladenić, Anthony Muchai Manyara, Bala Munipalli, Nellie Myburgh, Zhi Xiang Ng, Georgios Nikolopoulos, Chulwoo Park, Jay J Park, Prince Peprah, Klara Rudan, Syed Ahmar Shah, Ting Shi, Gregor Š Tiglic, Rosnah Sutan, Athanasios Tsanas, Holly Tibble, Abdul Tawab Khpalwak, Mark Tomlinson, Sandro Vento, Josipa Vlasac Glasnović, Liang Wang, Jingyi Xu, Jianrong Zhang, Yanfeng Zhang, Eamon Sheikh, Obianuju B Ozoh, Apostolos Tsiachristas, Davies Adeloye, Steven Kerr, Mili Sanwalka, Stjepan Orešković, Aziz Sheikh, Igor Rudan

Journal: The Lancet. Global health 2026;14(3):e455-e465

PMID: 41713447

Abstract

Applications of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) in global health are expanding, yet research remains fragmented and often misaligned with the needs of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). To address this misalignment, we conducted a global research priority-setting exercise using the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method. 155 research ideas were scored by 51 experts based on feasibility, potential impact on disease burden, paradigm shift potential, implementation potential, and equity. Top-ranked priorities focused on epidemic preparedness, including AI-based outbreak prediction, improved diagnostics for infectious diseases, and early-warning systems. Other highly ranked topics included AI-assisted resource allocation, telemedicine, culturally adapted mobile health services, and chronic disease management tools. Experts from LMICs prioritised infectious disease control and diagnostic equity, whereas experts from high-income countries emphasised infrastructure and climate-related analytics. The resulting agenda provides a roadmap for aligning AI and data science research with global health priorities, particularly in LMICs.

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Address: School of Public Health, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; Centre for Global Health, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].; School of Public Health, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.; School of Information Science and Technology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.; Gombe State University, Gombe and Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, Gombe, Nigeria.; Institut National de Santé Publique, Adjame, Côte d'Ivoire; Cellule de Recherche en Santé de la Reproduction de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.; Ziauddin Medical College, Ziauddin University, Karachi, Pakistan.; Division of Medical Education, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.; Rural Health Research Institute, Charles Sturt University, Orange, NSW, Australia.; Department of Digital Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico.; Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Global Health, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy; Department for Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli, Italy; Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Aden, Yemen.; Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.; Business School, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile.; Department of Psychology, Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové, Czechia.; Family Medicine Teaching Practice, Zagreb, Croatia.; The INCLEN Trust International, New Delhi, India.; National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico.; Institute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha, Qatar.; Centre for Health and Society, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.; Clinical Research Centre, Seberang Jaya Hospital, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.; School of American Education, Institute of Health & Management, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.; Department of Histology and Embryology, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia.; Department of Education, Training and Assessment, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.; Centre for Population Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia, Melaka, Malaysia.; Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK; Global Population Health Research Group, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.; Department of Nutrition, IMB, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Haematology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.; Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.; Tropical Biological Research Unit, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.; Bled Institute for Leadership in Digital Transformation and AI, IEDC-Bled School of Management, Bled, Slovenia.; Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.; Department of Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties, University of Catania, Catania, Italy; Clinical Neurophysiology Research Unit, Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina, Italy.; Centre for Medical Informatics, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.; Princess Srisavangavadhana Faculty of Medicine, Chulabhorn Royal Academy, Bangkok, Thailand; School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.; Bled Institute for Leadership in Digital Transformation and AI, IEDC-Bled School of Management, Bled, Slovenia; Department for Artificial Intelligence, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.; Global Health and Ageing Research Unit, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.; Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA.; University of the Witwatersrand and Africa Health Research Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa.; School of Biosciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.; Medical School, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.; Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA.; Centre for Global Health, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA.; Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.; Centre for Global Health, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.; Centre for Medical Informatics, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia; Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.; Department of Public Health Medicine, Medical Faculty, National University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.; Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.; Institute for Life Course Health Research, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University, Belfast, UK.; Faculty of Medicine, Manash Kozybayev North Kazakhstan University, Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan; Faculty of Medicine, University of Puthisastra, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.; Department of Haematology, Clinical Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia.; Laboratory Medicine, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China; The Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases Research and Training, Microbiology and Immunology Division, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.; School of Health Humanities, Peking University, Beijing, China.; Department of Primary Care and General Practice & Centre for Cancer Research, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Victorian Cancer Registry, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; School of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.; Department of Integrated Early Childhood Development, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China.; School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.; Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.; Centre for Public Health, School of Health and Life Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK.; Bled Institute for Leadership in Digital Transformation and AI, IEDC-Bled School of Management, Bled, Slovenia; School of Public Health "Andrija Stampar", Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.; Centre for Global Health, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Bled Institute for Leadership in Digital Transformation and AI, IEDC-Bled School of Management, Bled, Slovenia; Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].

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