Philippines Hosts ASEAN Working Committee on AI for Health Science

The Philippines hosted the second regional meeting of the ASEAN Working Committee on Artificial Intelligence for Health Science and Technology on September 28–29 in Manila and at De La Salle University’s Laguna campus, the Department of Science and Technology said in an October 9 release. DOST and its Philippine Council for Health Research and Development organised the hybrid sessions under the country’s 2026 ASEAN Chairship.

The gathering is Priority Economic Deliverable No. 14: a regional programme on science, technology and innovation for AI, starting with health research and development. It aligns with the ASEAN Responsible AI Roadmap for 2025–2030 and the ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation for 2026–2035. Delegates from all eleven ASEAN member states joined, along with representatives from the Senior Officials’ Meeting on Health Development, the ASEAN Working Group on AI Governance and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Committee outcomes include a validated landscape assessment of AI readiness in health science and technology across member states, a draft regional action plan covering research, governance and capacity building, and policy recommendations due for endorsement by the ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation in the fourth quarter of 2026. ERIA backed the work as a funding partner, with consultancy from the Foundation for Advancement of Clinical Epidemiology.

What it means in practice

DOST Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr said leading the regional plan of action is meant to harness AI ethically for stronger healthcare systems and to seed wider ASEAN cooperation later in energy, industry and agriculture. That regional framing complements domestic builds such as the $34 billion AI infrastructure masterplan and clinical tooling stories like hospital networks’ imaging-triage playbooks.

For Philippine hospitals and research institutes, the near-term value is shared standards and capacity programmes rather than a single new product. The harder test is whether the draft action plan survives COSTI endorsement with enough budget and data-sharing rules to move beyond workshop language.

What to watch: the COSTI endorsement timetable, which health AI pilots the Philippines nominates first under the plan, and whether energy and agriculture working groups reuse the same governance template.