Leveraging generative artificial intelligence to transform “disease systems” into health systems: a person-centered approach to support proactive aging

What is our vision for generative artificial intelligence in aging societies? And how can it be achieved? This project serves as a starting point to address these overarching questions.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has permeated daily life, with significant influence in health contexts. GenAI involves advanced technologies capable of generating relevant content such as GPT-4 and Sora. Its recent developments have been integrated into healthcare services, indicating GenAI’s potential to innovate health systems. For instance, GenAI has been utilized to create virtual health assistants that provide personalized medical advice and support, improve the accuracy of medical imaging interpretation, and aid in early disease detection and monitor treatment progress. Such innovations towards more tailored and effective solutions are particularly pertinent in addressing the diverse and growing needs of aging populations and promoting proactive aging.

The World Health Organization has highlighted the shortcomings of traditional health systems, which are narrowly focused on treating diseases rather than promoting and maintaining health over the life course. This has led to a call for transforming health systems to support lifelong health and create health-enabling environments. GenAI has the potential to be instrumental in this shift, promoting healthier lifestyles, delivering personalized care, and addressing social determinants of health at an individual level (e.g. social isolation).

Thus, it introduces a new era of possibilities for transformation, featuring a person-centered approach that includes older adults and supports a proactive aging agenda. Despite the promise, research on GenAI in the context of person-centered health promotion is scarce. Emerging studies from computer science, medicine, and bioinformatics are beginning to address how GenAI can optimize disease diagnosis, enhance disease treatment, and improve medical education. One research focus is exploring how GenAI models and techniques can enhance the delivery and efficiency of health services. Exploring (non-)users’ attitudes towards GenAI represents another critical, yet understudied, research focus. Additionally, there are ongoing discussions about ethical considerations, privacy, bias, and potential misuse of GenAI in health contexts. To fully grasp GenAI’s capabilities and implications for health, and to guide policy and practice, theoretically grounded, empirical and interdisciplinary research is needed.

This project aims to establish a foundation for building evidence on the role of GenAI in health promotion initiatives that can support proactive aging. Additionally, it aims to foster collaborative partnerships with the goal of maximizing the societal impacts of this research.

This project has an international outreach, including Singapore and Sweden as two study settings. Both countries are at the forefront of leveraging technology innovations to improve health outcomes in the context of aging, as evidenced by their latest national policies. The distinct cultural contexts of these countries could provide new insights into GenAI’s implications in health promotion across different cultures. Collaborative efforts will include conducting comparative case studies and sharing knowledge on a global scale. Within a 6-month period, our team will conduct two virtual ideation workshops with AI technology, health care and policy experts or entrepreneurs in English (or Swedish when necessary), each approximately two hours long: one with Swedish experts and the other with Singaporean experts. The participants for each workshop can range from ten to fifteen, aiming to ensure a diverse mix of professional and social backgrounds. Each session will be facilitated by 2-3 researchers. These workshops are designed to foster imaginative thinking and are foundational to our research’s exploratory approach. We will start by identifying current challenges in adopting a person-centered approach to GenAI for health promotion, then conceptualize innovative solutions to support such an approach, and finally, develop detailed plans for their implementation in the context of proactive aging. Each workshop will be structured in three phases: critique (to assess the challenges of GenAI in the context of health promotion), current possibilities, and implementation. Employing brainwriting techniques, we will encourage both individual and collective brainstorming to expand upon each other’s ideas. Data generated in the workshops, such as field notes, physical artefacts, and summaries of discussions, will be collected with informed consent and analyzed using thematic analysis. Workshop sessions will be recorded to aid the data analysis process. Our project is anticipated to result in a joint scholarly article suitable for a scientific journal, the formulation of a collaborative research grant proposal, and dissemination activities.

The project aligns with the Proactive Aging area, focusing on technology innovations and societal strategies. It acknowledges GenAI’s role in addressing future aging needs and in creating person-centered interventions that promote independence, participation, and quality of life. Additionally, our focus addresses the shift from managing diseases to enhancing health, empowering individuals to take control of and to improve their health. Our collaboration with Singaporean partners will advance international efforts in proactive aging.