Comparative Algorithmic Governance of Public Health Instruments across India, EU, US and LMICs

TL;DR

This study compares how different regions implement AI-driven public health tools, highlighting infrastructural and legal challenges in LMICs and proposing a coordinated, rights-based global governance framework for equitable health outcomes.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of international health law and AI integration, proposing a novel model for transnational algorithmic treaty-making and governance.

Findings

AI improves detection and surveillance in high-capacity jurisdictions.

LMICs face infrastructural deficits and legal gaps hindering AI deployment.

EU regulations serve as prototypes for health-oriented AI governance.

Abstract

The study investigates the juridico-technological architecture of international public health instruments, focusing on their implementation across India, the European Union, the United States and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It addresses a research lacuna: the insufficient harmonisation between normative health law and algorithmic public health infrastructures in resource-constrained jurisdictions. The principal objective is to assess how artificial intelligence augments implementation of instruments grounded in IHR 2005 and the WHO FCTC while identifying doctrinal and infrastructural bottlenecks. Using comparative doctrinal analysis and legal-normative mapping, the study triangulates legislative instruments, WHO monitoring frameworks, AI systems including BlueDot, Aarogya Setu and EIOS, and compliance metrics. Preliminary results show that AI has improved early detection, surveillance precision and responsiveness in high-capacity jurisdictions, whereas LMICs face infrastructural deficits, data privacy gaps and fragmented legal scaffolding. The findings highlight the relevance of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and GDPR as regulatory prototypes for health-oriented algorithmic governance and contrast them with embryonic AI integration and limited internet penetration in many LMICs. The study argues for embedding AI within a rights-compliant, supranationally coordinated regulatory framework to secure equitable health outcomes and stronger compliance. It proposes a model for algorithmic treaty-making inspired by FCTC architecture and calls for WHO-led compliance mechanisms modelled on the WTO Dispute Settlement Body to enhance pandemic preparedness, surveillance equity and transnational governance resilience.