Middle powers must collaborate on health data and health AI is imperative

In his address at the 2026 World Economic Forum, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, described a rupture in the global order, one that is now prompting nations to rethink economic security, supply chains, and technological independence.1 Increasingly, these concerns extend beyond traditional economic sectors to new forms of international collaboration. One promising pathway is cooperation among middle powers centred on health data and health artificial intelligence (AI).Middle power countries such as Canada, Australia, South Korea, and numerous European countries are not global superpowers but can exert influence through collaborative approaches, institution building, and collective influence.2 A potential approach to middle power collaboration related to health data encompasses infrastructure and technical approaches such as storage, governance, interoperability, and secure exchange of health data; and applications such as the development of health AI for decision support, risk prediction, public health surveillance, health system planning, and discovery research.34Middle power partnershipsCanada is one...