The system-level potential of artificial intelligence in healthcare was at the centre of the AI Healthcare Summit programme at AI Summit Budapest 2026, where the HAI-SO project, led by the Health Services Management Training Centre (EMK/HSMTC) of Semmelweis University and supported by the 2025 HU-Rizont programme, was presented. On 7 September, researchers and experts involved in the project shared their perspectives on the intersection of healthcare data, artificial intelligence and system-level healthcare optimization.
HAI-SO (System Optimization Driven by Healthcare Artificial Intelligence) aims to explore how artificial intelligence and large-scale health data analytics can contribute to more effective healthcare systems and hospital operations. The project brings together Semmelweis University and international academic partners, including researchers from Harvard University and Northeastern University, as well as experts from the Prague University of Economics and Business. Its work focuses on strengthening data-driven decision-making, supporting more efficient resource allocation, and improving patient pathways and healthcare outcomes.
At AI Summit Budapest, Prof. Mauricio Santillana, Professor at Northeastern University and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, presented the HAI-SO project. His presentation highlighted the potential of large-scale health data, machine learning and computational epidemiology, demonstrating how data-driven approaches can support the understanding of complex healthcare processes and evidence-based decision-making.
The project presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Miklós Szócska, Director of EMK, Prof. Mauricio Santillana and Peter Pažitný. The discussion brought together American, Hungarian and Czech perspectives on the use of healthcare data, international knowledge transfer and the potential of artificial intelligence to support the development of healthcare systems across different national and institutional contexts.
The AI Summit also hosted the second HAI-SO workshop on 7 September. The event was attended by a large number of students from the MSc program in Data Science in Health, providing an opportunity for the next generation of health data scientists to gain first-hand insight into current developments in healthcare AI and the international research collaboration behind HAI-SO. The workshop also created a direct link between the project’s research activities, international knowledge exchange and the educational work of EMK.
