By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The Principal Investigator
at the Responsible AI Lab (RAIL), Professor Jerry John Kponyo, has called for
the responsible integration of artificial intelligence into Ghana’s healthcare
system, stressing the need for AI tools to be safe, transparent, fair and
respectful of human dignity.
Speaking at the
International Conference on AI in Healthcare and Pharma (ICAIH) 2026, Prof.
Kponyo said artificial intelligence should complement the work of healthcare
professionals rather than replace human expertise and clinical judgment.
He highlighted a range of
initiatives being developed by RAIL to address healthcare and accessibility
challenges in underserved communities. These include Care for Rare Diseases,
SignTalk for real-time sign language translation, iSEE for visual navigation,
iWHEEL for smart mobility, iHEAR for assistive hearing and Project Kasa, which
focuses on inclusive speech recognition for low-resource African languages.
The lab is also working on
AI applications in medical imaging, including test-time adaptation for brain
tumour segmentation and AI-driven medical image translation.
Prof. Kponyo said such
applications demonstrate the potential of AI to address gaps in healthcare
delivery, particularly for communities that remain underserved by conventional
systems.
However, he identified
several challenges that could limit the effective deployment of AI in Ghana’s
healthcare sector. These include fragmented health data, limited availability
of datasets that adequately represent African populations, unreliable digital
infrastructure and cultural resistance to emerging technologies.
To address these challenges,
Prof. Kponyo advocated the development of a unified electronic health records
framework to enable more effective use of health data while supporting
interoperability across healthcare institutions.
He also called for AI
healthcare tools to undergo appropriate certification by the Ministry of Health
and the Food and Drugs Authority to ensure that systems deployed in clinical
environments meet required standards for safety, reliability and accountability.
For rural and underserved
healthcare facilities, he proposed the development of AI solutions capable of
operating in environments with limited or unreliable internet connectivity.
He further stressed the
importance of strengthening digital and AI-related skills among healthcare
professionals so that medical workers can effectively understand, assess and
use emerging technologies in their practice.
Prof. Kponyo said Ghana’s
ability to realise the transformative potential of AI in healthcare will depend
on sustained collaboration among researchers, government institutions,
healthcare providers, technology developers and other stakeholders.
He emphasised that
investment in infrastructure and locally relevant research must be accompanied
by a strong commitment to equity and inclusion to ensure that AI-driven
healthcare solutions benefit communities across the country and do not widen
existing digital and healthcare inequalities.
