GLIDE Leadership Excellence in AI for Health (GLIDE-LEAH) · Executive Program
Lead the decision, not the technology.
A six-day residential program for senior health leaders, convened by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE).
Inaugural cohort17 to 22 January 2027Abu Dhabi
- InstitutionDeveloped by GLIDE
- FormatFully in person
- DurationSix-day residential
- Cohort25 to 30 places
At a glance
The facts, before anything else
- Dates
- Sunday 17 to Friday 22 January 2027
- Location
- ADGM Academy, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi
- Format
- Fully in person. Residential. Six days.
- Cohort
- 25 to 30 senior health leaders. Inaugural cohort.
- Language
- English
- Applications close
- 6 November 2026
- You hear from us by
- 16 November 2026, whichever way the decision goes
- Selection
- By committee. Applying does not guarantee a place.
- Fee
- GLIDE funds part of the program and sponsors a number of places.
- Certificate
- GLIDE Leadership Excellence in AI for Health Certificate
- Prerequisite
- None. No technical background or coding required.
Program overview
AI is already inside your health system. Learn to lead the decision.
Artificial intelligence is already running inside health systems. It sits in outbreak detection, diagnostic pathways, clinical decision support, resource allocation and research pipelines.
The people who decide whether it helps or harms a health system are rarely the people who build it. They are ministers, directors-general, regulators, hospital executives and funders, and most of them have had no structured preparation for that decision.
This program is built for that decision.
Participants do not learn to build models. They learn to interrogate them, to work out where authority for an AI-influenced decision sits, to find the operational trade-offs early, and to sequence a deployment roadmap against the resources their institution actually has.
The evidence
We asked senior health leaders what they needed. Then we built the week around their answers.
Before a single session was designed, GLIDE ran a needs assessment with senior health executives working in ministries of health, national agencies and global health organisations. We asked what they were deciding, what was stopping them, and what they wished they had known earlier.
Governance scored 4.52 out of 5, higher than any other theme. Seventy-eight per cent named infrastructure readiness and data quality as the constraint that binds everything else.
The six pillars below are their answers. They are not a syllabus we wrote and then looked for an audience for.
The six pillars are not ours. They are what senior health leaders told us they were deciding.
Pillars
Six pillars and the shape of the week
The week is built around six pillars. Each answers a question senior leaders face when AI enters their system.
AI fundamentals and the health value chain
What the technology is, and what it has been shown to do in health.
Readiness, data and health intelligence
Whether your institution can carry it, and what it takes to see a signal early.
Governance, sovereignty and responsible AI
Who is accountable, who owns the data, and who can switch the system off.
From pilot to system
How to buy something that still works in year three.
Decision making in the era of AI
Where the model advises, where it decides, and who holds the decision right.
Implementation and change leadership
What you change on the Monday after you land.
Who it's for
For the people who hold the decision
GLIDE-LEAH is designed for leaders responsible for AI strategy, regulation, research, financing and implementation in health systems.
| Segment | Role in the AI decision | Typical institutions |
|---|---|---|
| Government and policy | Shaping national AI strategy and public sector investment | Ministries of health, digital agencies, ministries of science and technology |
| Health system leadership | Overseeing operational deployment and clinical integration | Hospital systems, public health agencies, integrated health networks |
| Academic and research institutions | Driving AI research, evidence and workforce training | Universities, AI institutes, public health research institutes |
| Regulatory authorities | Managing safety, approval and governance of AI systems | Medical device regulators, data protection authorities |
| Financing and philanthropy | Funding AI innovation and large-scale programs | Foundations, multilateral agencies, development finance institutions |
| Digital infrastructure | Providing data platforms, connectivity and computing capacity | Technology providers, telecommunications operators |
Scroll sideways to see the full table.
The inaugural cohort is 25 to 30 people. Applicants hold a management position with authority over decisions in their organisation, and more than ten years of professional experience. The cohort is balanced across regions, sectors and areas of responsibility, so that the room is not thirty versions of the same job.
Your program experience
Six days in the room, built around your own system
One intensive week in Abu Dhabi with senior peers. You arrive with your institution's questions and leave with its instruments filled in.
The setting
A city where these decisions have already been taken
Most executive programs discuss national health data infrastructure in a seminar room. Here you visit it. The week includes site visits to institutions across Abu Dhabi that have built and run the systems the rest of the week is about, including G42 Healthcare and Malaffi, the national health information exchange.
The program is based at ADGM Academy on Al Maryah Island. The cohort lives together for the full week, which is where a good deal of the value sits.
Outcomes
What you take home
You will not leave with notes. You will leave with the instruments your institution needs, already filled in for your own system.
- AI Fluency Brief
A one-page plain-language explainer for one AI system in your own portfolio
- AI and Data Readiness Diagnostic
A scored assessment across six dimensions, with a prioritised gap-closure plan
- Use-Case Triage and Value Framework
A scored shortlist of candidate AI investments, built on the program's six analytical questions
- AI Risk and Assurance Register
Failure modes, likelihood, mitigation, named owner and review cadence, with a two-page policy brief
- Procurement and Cost of Ownership Checklist
Specification, validation, monitoring and three-year cost, with outcome-based success measures
- AI Deployment Roadmap
A sequenced 12 to 24 month plan, with a signed personal 100-Day Commitment
By the end of the week you will be able to:
- Interrogate an AI model and explain it in plain language to your board or minister.
- Work out where authority for an AI-influenced decision sits, and who can switch a system off.
- Find the operational trade-offs of a deployment early.
- Buy and validate AI that still works in year three.
- Sequence a deployment roadmap against the resources your institution actually has.
After the week
The week ends. The commitment does not.
On the final day you sign a 100-Day Commitment in front of the cohort: one decision from your roadmap that you will carry into your own institution, with a date against it.
GLIDE convenes the cohort again at the review point. You report what happened, including what did not work, which is usually the more useful half. The group you met in January is the group you will call when the decision gets difficult.
- One decision, carried into your institution within a hundred days.
- A named date for the review, agreed before you leave Abu Dhabi.
- An honest account at that review, whether the decision held or not.
What you need
What do you need to take part?
Taking part is simple. You will need:
- A senior role with responsibility for AI strategy, regulation, research, financing or implementation in a health system.
- More than ten years of professional experience.
- Availability for all six days, 17 to 22 January 2027, in Abu Dhabi.
- One AI system or candidate AI investment from your own portfolio to work on during the week.
- A laptop. Everything else is provided.
Applying
This is an application, not a registration
The cohort has 25 to 30 places and we expect more applications than places. A selection committee reviews every application. Four things decide the outcome.
| # | What we look at | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | The level of your role | You hold a management position with authority over decisions in your organisation. We look at the reporting line and the size of the function, not the title alone. |
| 02 | The length of your experience | More than ten years of professional experience. This is a threshold, not a preference. |
| 03 | What you are trying to decide | The application asks you to describe one artificial intelligence decision you expect to face in the next twelve months. This answer carries more weight than any other part of the form. |
| 04 | The balance of the cohort | A room of thirty people from one kind of institution teaches less than a room of thirty from many. Geography, sector and area of responsibility are balanced across the final list. |
Scroll sideways to see the full table.
Apply online. The form takes about twenty minutes and asks for a curriculum vitae and proof of identity.
Applications close on 6 November 2026.
A selection committee reviews every application.
You hear from us by 16 November 2026, whichever way the decision goes.
A six-day residential executive program for senior health leaders, convened by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), on leading AI decisions in health systems. The inaugural cohort runs 17 to 22 January 2027 in Abu Dhabi.
No. You learn to interrogate them, to work out where authority for an AI-influenced decision sits, to find operational trade-offs early, and to sequence a deployment roadmap.
Sunday 17 to Friday 22 January 2027, fully in person at ADGM Academy on Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.
Six full days, residential. Six masterclasses of three hours, three applied sessions of two hours, and a day of site visits. Evenings are part of the program.
The Global Institute for Disease Elimination, based in Abu Dhabi.
Senior leaders responsible for AI strategy, regulation, research, financing and implementation in health systems: ministers, directors-general, regulators, hospital executives and funders.
No. The program is about the decision, not the technology.
No. Affordability where resources are limited is one of the six pillars, and the cohort is deliberately balanced across regions and income settings.
Yes. A minister or head of institution may nominate a candidate, who then completes the same application and states that the nomination is theirs. A nomination does not replace the application.
Six pillars: AI fundamentals and the health value chain; readiness, data and health intelligence; governance, sovereignty and responsible AI; from pilot to system; decision making in the era of AI; implementation and change leadership.
Six instruments completed for your own institution, including a 12 to 24 month deployment roadmap and a signed personal 100-Day Commitment.
From a needs assessment of senior health executives working in ministries, agencies and global health organisations. The six pillars are the themes they named.
Attend all six days and complete the six instruments for your own system.
Yes. Bring one AI system or candidate AI investment from your own portfolio. Everything you build during the week is built on it. Joining material is sent once your place is confirmed.
A laptop for the applied sessions. Everything else is provided.
English. No translation is provided.
Yes. The instruments build on each other, and a session missed cannot be made up afterwards.
GLIDE funds part of the program and sponsors a number of places. Applicants who are not awarded a sponsored place pay a fee.
You may apply directly. A nomination from your minister or the head of your institution is welcome but not required. You will be asked to confirm that your institution supports your attendance for the full week.
Please contact GLIDE-LEAH@glideae.org.
Through the Apply link on this page. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submission is advised.
Applications close on 6 November 2026.
Against the level of your role, the length of your experience and what you are trying to decide. A selection committee reviews every application, and places are limited to 25 to 30.
By 16 November 2026, whichever way the decision goes.
You will be told after the final review, and you may be considered for the next cohort without starting again.
Yes. Participants who complete the week and the six instruments receive the GLIDE Leadership Excellence in AI for Health Certificate.
You carry one decision from the week back into your institution over the first hundred days and report on it at a review point. The cohort stays in contact and GLIDE convenes it again at that point.
Email GLIDE-LEAH@glideae.org.
How to apply
Secure your place in the inaugural cohort
Lead the decision, not the technology. Join 25 to 30 senior health leaders in Abu Dhabi, 17 to 22 January 2027.
Apply for GLIDE-LEAHApplications close on 6 November 2026 and are reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submission is advised. You hear from us by 16 November 2026. Applying does not guarantee a place.