Public health agencies from around the world met in Stockholm this week to discuss how data analytics and artificial intelligence could be used in spotting potential health threats earlier, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The hybrid meeting took place on 26–27 May 2026 and brought together ECDC staff with representatives from international organisations and national public health institutes involved in “public health intelligence,” the ECDC informed on Thursday.
Large and varied data sources are becoming more widely available, creating new possibilities for analysing information that could help health authorities understand and track emerging risks, the agency added.
The discussions focused on using advanced analytical methods and AI — computer systems that can process and identify patterns in large amounts of data — to support early detection of potential threats and improve “situational awareness”, a term used for understanding what is happening during an unfolding event.
Data science initiative
The event was held as part of ECDC’s Data Science for Public Health Intelligence initiative, which it described as a programme to encourage collaboration between institutions working on these approaches.
ECDC said it continues to support integrating data analytics and AI into public health intelligence to improve how quickly emerging health threats are detected and responded to.
