Sydney (VNA) – Australia’s Lowy Institute has highlighted the importance of harmonising digital infrastructure among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enable effective deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in tobacco control across a region which is home to 120 million smokers.

In an article published on its website on August 12, the institute underlined that tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable death in Southeast Asia.

While AI can support smart efforts in controlling tobacco export and use, it is only possible if the region has a standardised data entry system that allows every country to effectively and legally share their data with each other. Yet, the diversity of data systems across the region, from Singapore’s fully digital health records to paper registries in emerging economies, poses both challenges and opportunities for working together.

All ASEAN member states, except Indonesia, have signed and ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but national statutes and data-privacy regimes vary widely, it noted.

The institute said that AI can support tobacco control through analysing customs data to predict smuggling, tailoring cessation programmes via machine learning on anonymised health data, using natural language processing to detect marketing tactics online. However, without a unified data architecture, such efforts remain disjointed, it added.

To break down these silos, ASEAN could adopt a common data-exchange architecture featuring a shared data model, it said, suggesting that a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based system could ensure consistency in how smoking status, treatment outcomes and enforcement actions are represented.

To realise fully AI-driven tobacco control, ASEAN leaders need to harmonise data-protection laws. There is a need to invest in core digital infrastructure so that even lower-middle-income and low-income countries can capture and share basic cessation and enforcement metrics. They must also develop common technical standards and codes to underpin a regional data hub, and launch capacity-building initiatives pairing mature systems with developing nations.

𒉰 By acknowledging the region’s diversity of data maturity and committing to a harmonised, interoperable framework, ASEAN can move from fragmented national efforts to a united, predictive strategy, accelerating progress toward a smoke-free future, according to the institute./.