WHO brings 37 countries together in Lisbon to get AI governance right and make it work for every patient
WHO, July 15, 2026
A global high-level conference on artificial intelligence (AI) in health, co-hosted by WHO/Europe and the Government of Portugal, opens today bringing together ministers and senior government representatives from 37 countries across all 6 WHO regions, alongside leaders from the Aga Khan University, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, Wellcome Trust and World Bank.
The meeting comes as WHO/Europe’s own assessment – the most comprehensive ever conducted on AI readiness across the WHO European Region – reveals a striking gap between ambition and governance: nearly two thirds of countries are already deploying AI in diagnostics, yet only 8% have a health-specific AI strategy, and only 8% have liability standards defining who is responsible when an AI system fails.
