LUXEMBOURG — Luxembourg has been chosen to host a new World Health Organization office dedicated to artificial intelligence in health, from which WHO/Europe intends to help European countries regulate the use of these technologies in healthcare, Delano reported on Thursday.
Source: Delano
The centre will be a "geographically dispersed" office of WHO/Europe — a specialised branch outside its Copenhagen headquarters, serving the region's 53 Member States. Luxembourg won the competition against Poland and Portugal. It joins five existing offices: Barcelona (health-system financing), Venice (investment for health), Almaty (primary healthcare), Istanbul (health-emergency preparedness) and Bonn (environment and health). Such offices are small — WHO data for 2024 put staffing at existing offices at between six and 23 people — and Luxembourg's staffing has not yet been disclosed.
Its first task will be to translate general principles on "safe, ethical and trustworthy" AI into practical tools for governments, public authorities and healthcare professionals: comparing hospitals' experiences, drawing up recommendations, training professionals and advising governments on strategy, including countries with fewer technical resources. For an X-ray analysis tool, for example, a hospital must check the quality of its training data, measure its errors, identify biases, decide who remains responsible for the medical decision, and protect patient data — the kind of questions the office will work on.
The office will not replace the authorities that authorise medical devices, will not oversee hospitals in Luxembourg, and its recommendations will not be binding on Member States, Delano noted. The announcement was also summarised by Wisevoter, which said Luxembourg was officially announced as host on October 29 and that the office will support WHO's AI-in-health roadmap for 2026–2033.
Source: Wisevoter
AI is outrunning the rules
A WHO study published in April 2026 found that nearly two-thirds of the European Union countries surveyed are already using AI in diagnosis, but only 8 percent have a dedicated AI strategy for healthcare, and the same proportion has established rules on who bears responsibility when a system makes a mistake. The new office's work will support the roadmap on artificial intelligence in health for 2026–2033, which was submitted to Member States at the WHO Regional Committee meeting in Copenhagen this week.
"Artificial intelligence must help to improve the quality and safety of care, support healthcare professionals and genuinely benefit patients, whilst respecting their rights and their data," said Luxembourg's minister for health and social security, Martine Deprez. The press release did not specify an opening date, address, budget or the state's financial contribution — those elements are expected in the hosting agreement still to be negotiated with the WHO.