South Asia Unites to Advance Open Digital Health at Regional Summit 2025

Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO of the National Health Authority, stressed the need for informed, contextual, and ethical deployment of GenAI systems.

The Regional Open Digital Health Summit 2025, a landmark gathering for the global digital health community, was inaugurated in New Delhi, bringing together policymakers, technologists, public health leaders, researchers, and international organisations from across the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR).

Held from 19–20 November 2025, the summit signals a decisive push toward building open, standards-based, interoperable, and citizen-centric digital health systems that can strengthen universal health coverage across the region.

Organised jointly by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics & IT, the National Health Authority (NHA), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, WHO-SEARO, and UNICEF, the summit serves as a collaborative platform for countries seeking scalable digital health reforms grounded in open digital public infrastructure.

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India Sets the Tone: “Digital Health Must Be Connected, Interoperable, & Citizen-Centric”

Delivering the inaugural address, Union Health Secretary Smt. Punya Salila Srivastava emphasised that despite diversity across SEAR nations, their health systems share common challenges—shortages of trained health workers, infrastructural gaps, cost barriers, and unequal access.

“These challenges may appear distinct, but they are bound by a single thread—the urgent need for connected, citizen-centric health systems to bridge gaps in access and equity,” she noted.

The Health Secretary spotlighted India’s decade-long journey in building a robust digital health ecosystem, guided by landmark frameworks:

• National Digital Health Blueprint (2019)

• National Health Policy (2017)

She underscored that India’s digital framework is built on interoperability, privacy-by-design, open standards, and an architecture that integrates responsible Generative AI (GenAI).

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AI in Public Health: India Shares Scalable Real-World Use Cases

Smt. Srivastava highlighted how India has operationalised AI across the public health ecosystem:

AI-driven public health surveillance

• Early outbreak prediction through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP)

• Vulnerability mapping for high-risk districts

AI-enabled diagnostics

• Screening models for diabetic retinopathy, oral cancer, tuberculosis risk, and skin diseases

• Deployment of AI tools to frontline workers in remote regions

AI-powered clinical decision support

• Integration with e-Sanjeevani telemedicine, supporting:

  • Over two lakh doctors

  • More than twenty crore patients

She reiterated India’s commitment to transparent, evidence-based, and safe AI, emphasising that “AI cannot be an opaque black box—it must enhance trust, not compromise it.”

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NHA Highlights: “Generative AI Must Amplify Human Capability, Not Replace It”

Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO of the National Health Authority, stressed the need for informed, contextual, and ethical deployment of GenAI systems.

He cautioned that AI’s effectiveness is directly tied to data quality, interoperability, and strong governance frameworks.

Delivering the keynote address on Emerging Practices in Digital Health Interoperability: GenAI for Global Health, he highlighted pressing realities across the region:

• Disproportionate disease burden

• Workforce shortages

• Fragmented digital systems

• Persistent structural inequities

He underscored that the Full-STAC approach—open standards, open technology, open architecture, and open content—is essential for AI to scale responsibly.

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India’s DPI Advantage: ABHA, Registries, Consent, and FHIR-based Workflows

Dr. Barnwal showcased India’s evolving digital health backbone under:

• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)

• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY

He explained that these provide foundational rails for AI innovation:

• Unified health identifiers (ABHA)

• Interoperable registries (providers, facilities, payers)

• Consent-based data exchange protocols

• FHIR-based digital workflows

Examples included:

• AI-enabled fraud analytics under PM-JAY

• Clinical decision support embedded within ABDM networks

• Voice-to-text tools reducing documentation burden on providers

He emphasised privacy-preserving AI, suggesting that training models at the data source can eliminate the need for centralised data storage—essential for protecting sensitive health information.

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Open Standards, Full-STAC, and DPI: The Framework for Future-Ready Health Systems

Delivering a keynote, Mr. Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary & Mission Director (ABDM), emphasised that open health architectures are central to scaling digital health across the region.

“Digital Public Infrastructure allows us to move from fragmented point solutions to connected, inclusive, citizen-centric care,” he said.

He outlined how India’s DPI stack—rooted in ABHA, FHIR, registries, and consent frameworks—provides a practical blueprint for SEAR countries aspiring to build robust governance and innovation ecosystems.

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Global Partnerships, Regional Learning: A Shared Agenda for Interoperable Health

The summit hosted high-impact technical sessions featuring topics such as:

• Building with HL7 FHIR and WHO SMART Guidelines

• GenAI for diagnostics, multilingual communication, and fraud prevention

• Strengthening legislative frameworks for digital health

• Regional cooperation on surveillance data standards

• Next-generation personal health records and digital workflows

Senior leaders and representatives joined from:

• WHO Headquarters & WHO-SEARO

• UNICEF

• Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste

• India AI Mission

• Microsoft India

• NeGD, MoHFW, NITI Aayog

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Expected Outcomes: Roadmaps, Capacity Building, and Regional Governance

The Regional Open Digital Health Summit 2025 is expected to produce a series of actionable outcomes, including:

• Country-specific digital health transformation roadmaps

• Strengthened regional coordination for health data interoperability

• Enhanced technical capacity through shared tools and knowledge exchanges

• Frameworks for responsible GenAI deployment in health systems

• Strategies to accelerate universal health coverage through DPI

The summit builds on the momentum generated by the Inaugural Open Digital Health Summit in Nairobi (2024) and reflects India’s deep commitment to advancing:

• Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

• The WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health

• Scalable, open, and equitable digital public infrastructure worldwide