Climate change and AI add to pressures on Asia Pacific’s health systems
Extreme weather is exacerbating disease risks and threatening healthcare infrastructure, warned WHO officials at the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health.
Cambodian Health Minister Chheang Ra speaks at the 9th Asia-Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health in Phnom Penh. (Photo: Facebook/National Assembly of Cambodia & WHO)
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Lawmakers and health experts from across the Asia Pacific are meeting in Cambodia this week to discuss how healthcare systems can adapt to climate change and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The three-day Asia-Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), concludes on Thursday (Aug 13) in Phnom Penh. Attended by representatives from 16 countries, the meeting is focusing on universal health coverage, climate-resilient health systems and the use of AI in healthcare.
About 600 million people in the region face financial hardship linked to accessing health services, said Lluis Vinyals Torres, WHO’s Western Pacific director of health systems and services.
“New challenges have emerged, including aging societies and a shift towards non-communicable diseases, which put pressure on our health systems,” he told CNA’s Asia Now on the sidelines of the forum.
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“We’re trying to set the agenda … through regulation, budget settings (and) oversight to help countries to move faster and progress towards universal health coverage.”
Governments need to spend more on healthcare, he added, noting that health spending in the region remains well below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average.
But increasing budgets alone will not be enough, he said.
“It’s not an issue of more money. It’s an issue of better targeting, of using payment mechanisms that steers our (healthcare) providers … towards more protection and (improve) access to people,” he added.
CLIMATE CHANGE: A HEALTH ISSUE
Climate change is adding another layer of strain. Extreme heat, floods and severe storms are increasingly affecting communities across the region, with consequences ranging from heat-related illnesses to changing patterns of infectious disease.
“Climate change is indeed a health issue,” said Michelle Isles, CEO of Australian advocacy group Climate and Health Alliance.
“From typhoons to other extreme weather events; and here, close to the equator, extreme heat impacts the health and well-being of communities.”
Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can put significant pressure on vital organs, particularly among children, older people and pregnant women, while storms and floods can exacerbate the spread of waterborne and other infectious diseases, she added.
Health systems therefore have to prepare not only for surges in demand during acute events, but also for longer-term consequences, including the impact on mental health.
Beyond driving demand for care, climate change is also affecting the ability of health systems to deliver it, Torres said. He noted that many healthcare facilities in the Pacific, for instance, are situated close to coastlines, leaving them vulnerable to sea-level rise and potentially threatening the continuity of services.
Adapting health systems will require significant investment, particularly for lower- and middle-income nations, he said, noting that there remains a substantial gap between the availability of global climate financing and countries’ ability to access those funds for health-system adaptation.
For Isles, that makes preventive health policies increasingly important.
“Prevention is the key. We need a health-in-all-policies approach,” she said. “If we put on a health lens first, we can save lives. We’d make very different decisions about the way in which we plan cities, generate energy and look at trade and economy.”
AI: OPPORTUNITY AND RISK
AI, another major focus of the forum, could help health systems tackle some of their existing constraints but also raises questions about inequality, regulation and accountability.
AI is already being used to assist doctors with medical records, diagnosis and clinical decision-making, said Hiromasa Okayasu, WHO’s Western Pacific director of data, strategy and innovation.
One significant benefit is reducing the time doctors and nurses spend on administrative and coordination work.
“If AI can streamline all these reporting, scribing and coordination, then doctors and nurses can spend more time with patients,” Okayasu said.
AI-powered triage could also improve access in remote communities by rapidly analysing vital signs and symptoms to determine when patients need to travel to hospitals. The technology can also assist with medical imaging and diagnosis.
But access remains uneven. Okayasu said AI adoption in healthcare is currently concentrated in higher-income countries, potentially widening existing disparities if poorer countries are left behind.
“If we don’t do anything, then this will further expand the gap,” he said. “Also, AI is as good as the data it trains from. Therefore, when one country adapts the model from other countries, local validation is important.”
The policy challenge, he added, is finding a balance. Excessive regulation could hinder adoption in places that could benefit from the technology, while inadequate oversight raises risks of bias and misuse.
Countries also have vastly different levels of infrastructure, resources and regulatory capacity.
Rather than waiting until all the necessary systems are in place, Okayasu said lower-resource countries could start with lower-risk, high-impact applications while building the necessary governance.
He emphasised that when AI is used to assist with diagnosis or treatment decisions, however, responsibility must ultimately remain with healthcare professionals.
“These AI systems … are to support the human healthcare workers,” he said. “It is very important to make sure that the human has a final decision.”
REGIONAL COOPERATION
For host country Cambodia, the discussions come as it pursues its own healthcare reforms.
The government has set out a roadmap towards universal health coverage by 2035, including targets to achieve 80 per cent population coverage of essential health services and reduce out-of-pocket medical spending to 35 per cent.
Health Minister Chheang Ra said primary healthcare is at the centre of the country’s reforms. He added that many of Cambodia’s challenges are also shared by countries across the region.
“We face many common challenges: infectious diseases, climate change, health workforce shortage, health financing, population aging, non-communicable diseases and the rapid development of AI and digital health,” he told CNA.
“No country can protect its population by acting alone. (Health) challenges cross borders, so our response must also therefore cross borders.”
He said nations need to cooperate and share information to improve outbreak detection and response, while also exchanging experience in areas such as healthcare workforce training and planning.
“Every country must have a choice and a voice,” he said. “Global health must be built together.”
Source: CNA/dn(ca)
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