How can artificial intelligence help people access healthcare when war, displacement and disrupted services make it harder to reach them?
At AidEx Geneva, an international humanitarian aid and development event, Dr Tetiana Deshko, Director of International Programs at the Alliance for Public Health, will share APH’s experience of applying AI in public health programmes and explore what these approaches can offer humanitarian responses.
Examples include TWIIN, an AI-powered digital assistant that helps people access health information and navigate available services, and AI-supported HIV testing prioritisation, which uses programme data from DHIS2 to help outreach teams identify whom to prioritise for testing.
These approaches address practical challenges: helping people take the next step towards care and supporting outreach workers in deciding where to focus their efforts. For humanitarian programmes, they also raise questions about accessibility, data protection and how technology can support the work of local teams.
“When people flee, their health needs travel with them. AI lets services follow. Chatbots and telemedicine connected tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians to care, and our virtual outreach worker Twiin now gives more than 70,000 people free consultations 24/7. That’s not the future of humanitarian work. It’s the present, and we need to scale it,” says Dr Tetiana Deshko.
Join us for “Can AI be a Game Changer for Health Programmes in Humanitarian Settings?”
The discussion will explore the opportunities and limitations of AI, including what is needed to ensure that its use reflects the needs of affected communities and strengthens health services in crisis settings.
21 October 2026 | 15:00–16:00
Workshop Room 1 | AidEx Geneva
Speakers:
• Awa Babington-Ashaye, Digital Health Advisor, Geneva Digital Health Hub
• Wahid Majrooh, Former Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan
• Gwydion Williams, Deputy Director, AI, PATH
• Erika Placella, Head of Health and Food, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
• David Sasu, SwissAI Post-doctoral Research Fellow, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
• Tetiana Deshko, Director of International Programs, Alliance for Public Health