Abu Dhabi institute brings UAE’s disease prevention and AI expertise to New York

An Abu Dhabi-based global health institute has taken the United Arab Emirates’ disease-elimination expertise and new artificial intelligence training to New York during the UN General Assembly high-level week, launching two AI programmes for public health leaders, formalising a partnership on malaria control and benefiting from a separate UAE pledge of $5 million to support the Abu Dhabi Declaration on the global fight against crime. The Global Institute for Disease Elimination (Glide) unveiled the Glide Leadership Excellence in AI for Health and AI for All programmes, signed a Letter of Mutual Understanding with the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, and convened Nigeria as co-host to focus on country-led uses of AI in disease surveillance and control.

“There are a lot of opportunities, but most of the opportunities for AI are currently tailored for the need of the highly developed countries,” said Dr Farida Al Hosani, chief executive of the Global Institute for Disease Elimination. “So low and middle-income countries are left behind in terms of their utilisation of the potential of AI.”

Glide used UNGA high-level week to press the case that AI must be adapted to national priorities rather than exported as one-size-fits-all tools. The institute described the Leadership Excellence in AI for Health programme as targeted at senior decision-makers, while AI for All was developed by Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and tailored with Glide for public health professionals. The initiatives are intended to equip national programmes with the skills to deploy AI in ways that reflect “their own priorities and realities,” Dr Al Hosani said.

At the sidelines meeting, ministers, funders, diagnostics leaders and health advocates discussed how AI can stretch shrinking donor budgets by improving surveillance, diagnostics and resource allocation. The gathering concluded with the signing of a Letter of Mutual Understanding between Glide and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria to support country-led malaria control and elimination, connecting national programmes with global expertise, AI and technical innovation. Nigeria, which carries the largest share of the global malaria burden, co-hosted the event.

• Glide is already piloting AI-assisted microscopy in Madagascar to detect multiple neglected tropical diseases in a single setup, addressing shortages of specialist diagnosticians.
• The institute said it is working on roughly 14 projects across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, emphasising integration of disease-elimination work into broader health systems.
• Glide framed its work as bridging two strands: expertise in neglected tropical diseases and placement within an ecosystem supporting AI advancement in the UAE and beyond.

Dr Al Hosani cautioned that optimism about AI must be tempered by careful risk management: “We are very optimistic. But again, the use of AI should always be with caution.” She stressed that sustainable impact requires embedding disease programmes within resilient health systems rather than treating conditions in isolation.

Outlook: Glide’s twin strategy — building country-level AI capacity and linking national programmes with global technical partners such as RBM — aims to channel UAE-backed know-how into practical tools for low- and middle-income countries. The success of the new training programmes and the Madagascar microscopy pilot will be watched closely by ministries and donors as they seek cost-effective ways to sustain disease-elimination gains amid tightening budgets. The parallel $5 million UAE pledge to support the Abu Dhabi Declaration underscores continuing Emirati engagement in global health and security initiatives as these technologies scale.