Executive Program in AI for Public Health

Convened by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination

Lead the decision, not the technology.

A six-day residential program for senior health leaders, convened by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination.

Sunday 17 to Friday 22 January 2027.
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
25 to 30 places, inaugural cohort.
Fully in person.

The proposition

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 belongs, to find the operational trade-offs early, and to sequence a deployment roadmap against the resources their institution actually has.

Finding	What it changed
National AI strategy and governance rated 4.52 out of 5, the highest of nine subjects tested	Governance and sovereignty became a full pillar rather than a single session
78 per cent named infrastructure readiness and data quality as a leading barrier, ahead of financing	Readiness diagnosis was built in as an instrument that participants complete for their own institution
Senior leaders asked for a fully in-person format by a clear margin	Six days on site, with no online component

What makes it different

It teaches judgement, not tools. The four subjects senior leaders rated highest are all about steering a system. Participants learn to direct AI, interrogate it and govern it.
It is built for real constraints. Intermittent connectivity, offline operation, limited compute and tight budgets are treated as ordinary working conditions rather than exceptions.
Participants leave with instruments, not notes. Six working documents and a policy brief, built during the week and taken into institutional use.
It is fully in person. Six days on site, no online component, which is the format the target audience asked for by a clear margin.
The room is the curriculum. Twenty-five to thirty leaders, curated across regions and sectors so the peer exchange is worth the travel.

Who should attend

The program is designed for the people who hold the decision: 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

Twenty-five to thirty participants. Each cohort is balanced across regions and sectors, and each capstone team is built to hold policy, clinical, data, and financing authority at the same table.
Participants who complete the five working days and lodge a complete toolkit receive the GLIDE Executive Certificate in AI for Public Health.

What you will be able to do

Explain what an AI system does and what would make it fail, to a board or a minister, without jargon.
Judge whether your institution can actually carry a proposed deployment, and sequence the work to close the gap.
Decide which AI investments deserve commitment, and defend saying no to the rest.
Assign verification responsibility, set escalation criteria, and keep control of where data and models sit.
Specify, buy and sustain a deployment across its whole life rather than only fund its launch.
Carry a deployment from decision to working reality, including the organizational work.
Know what the model may decide, what it may only advise, and who holds the decision right.

Who teaches it

Taught by the people who build it, govern it and pay for it.

Each session is led by instructors selected for demonstrated depth in that specific subject, drawn from leading universities, national health agencies, regulators and the technology organizations deploying AI in health systems today. Academic authority is paired with operators who have taken systems into national programs.

What is included

Six masterclasses taught by senior academic and industry instructors
Two hands-on executive laboratories, on data and on governance, with no coding required
Three site visits inside live public health, genomic and hospital operations in Abu Dhabi
A cross-functional capstone project, defended before an expert panel
An opening keynote from a leading figure in health and AI
A hosted networking evening with invited guests from the regional health and AI ecosystem
Certification and a graduation dinner with GLIDE leadership and invited partners
Six working documents and a policy brief were built during the week and taken home
Membership of the GLIDE Global AI-for-Health Leaders Network
All program materials, meals, and refreshments across the six days

Places for the inaugural cohort are limited to thirty and are allocated on application.