2025 has already proven to be a pivotal year for global health governance and the digital transformation of healthcare.
In January, the United States formally began its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, marking a significant shift in the global health landscape and reshaping long-standing modes of international cooperation. In Europe, the European Health Data Space (EHDS) entered into force in March, creating, for the first time, a unified framework that empowers EU citizens to access and control their health data across borders while enabling secure data reuse for research, innovation, and policymaking.
At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence accelerated worldwide. Governments, research institutions, and industry expanded AI-related regulation, infrastructure, and investment, while new generations of large language and multimodal models intensified global conversations around innovation, ethics, and governance.
Against this backdrop, digital health literacy moved firmly to center stage. In December, the Council of Europe, together with the Government of Italy, convened a high-level conference in Rome focused on strengthening citizens’ competencies in an increasingly AI driven healthcare environment. Our Hub was honored to participate, represented by our Youth Ambassador Danai Spentzou, in this important dialogue and to contribute to related expert webinars, reinforcing a shared understanding that as health systems evolve, inclusion and literacy must evolve with them.
For us at the Hub, 2025 has also been a year of intentional growth and careful construction.
The past months were dedicated to laying strong foundations, planning next steps, shaping governance, and building the ecosystem that will sustain our work in the years ahead. During this time, our Hub Community Platform, curated and led by our Community Manager, Monique Eisenberg Kozlakidis, entered a soft-launch phase and is now open exclusively to Hub members, free of access fees.
November and December also marked important scientific milestones, with the submission of two new peer-reviewed research presentations! These contributions reflect our commitment to evidence-based work that informs policy debates and advances a responsible, human-centered approach to AI in health.
During this period, we also established a growing collaboration with our European Node, the Cosmo-Logos Research Center for Science and Culture, laying the groundwork for joint actions, programs, and long-term synergies across research, policy, and culture. We are very much looking forward to bringing this collaboration to life in the months ahead.
In just three months, our core team, led by our wonderful Project Manager, Anna Andersen Rolsma, worked with determination and a shared sense of purpose to establish a governance structure designed not only for growth, but for longevity. Our motivation is collaboration.
Our strength lies in our conviction that AI can be used for good, provided we remain thoughtful stewards and active participants in decision-making, even when the path forward is complex.
Looking ahead to January 2026, we are thrilled to launch our first digital health literacy pilot study in Greece, in collaboration with the WHO Office on Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Athens, Greece and with the Global Health Literacy Academy by Professor Kristine Sorensen, a leading global figure in global health literacy and a member of the Hub’s Scientific Advisory Board.
This milestone brings our research, policy, and community engagement full circle, taking concrete steps toward reducing the digital divide.
We are also preparing exciting new collaborations in both the United States and the European Union, which we look forward to announcing in our next newsletter!
We invite you to explore our newly revamped website and meet the people behind this vision: our Scientific Advisory Board, Task Force Leaders, advisors, ambassadors, and administrative team who represent our mission around the world.
Join us. Together we can grow this community, deepen the dialogue, and amplify our collective impact.
Be part of our journey!
Warm wishes for a beautiful and creative New Year, full of light and joy!
Olga
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