Colombia faced a health care reckoning in March when experts gathered at Latam HealthTech Forum 2025 to discuss a pressing problem; the country’s health system was cracking under pressure.
Out-of-pocket medical spending had jumped more than 5% in the first half of 2024 alone, reflecting deep structural problems including service shortages, treatment delays, and access barriers. But instead of despair, the three-day forum brought hope, showcasing how artificial intelligence, digital connectivity, and data analytics could fundamentally transform health care delivery.
From startups developing AI diagnostic tools to large enterprises building integrated health platforms, speakers unveiled innovations that promise to bridge Colombia’s health care gap and serve as models across Latin America.
The health crisis driving digital transformation
Colombia’s health care system struggled under massive strain heading into 2025. Dr. Carlos Felipe Escobar, representing HUBiEX Universidad El Bosque, described it as “a critical moment” for the nation’s medical infrastructure.
Beyond statistics, the crisis represented real consequences for patients: Months-long waits for procedures, limited access to specialists in rural areas, overwhelming emergency departments, and people going without necessary treatments due to cost barriers.
This context made the forum’s focus on technological solutions particularly urgent. Dr. Lina Morales Mora, director of HealthTech Colombia, emphasized that digitalization offered essential tools for expanding access and optimizing health care processes.
Technology wasn’t a luxury; it was becoming a necessity for system survival. The forum provided a platform for innovators to demonstrate how artificial intelligence, when applied thoughtfully, could address these systemic failures.
Arkangel AI: Bringing diagnosis to remote communities
One presentation captivated attendees; Arkangel AI’s approach to democratizing medical diagnostics. Laura Velazquez, co-founder, explained how her company’s AI tools could detect malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer in early stages without requiring specialist physicians or expensive laboratory equipment. The breakthrough mattered because many Colombian communities lacked access to these resources entirely.
What made Arkangel AI’s solution genuinely innovative was training AI models using diverse clinical data reflecting different genetic, environmental, and socioeconomic characteristics. This approach meant algorithms performed reliably across Colombia’s varied populations, including rural indigenous communities where diagnosis opportunities were traditionally nonexistent.
Velazquez described her company’s mission simply: “Free 1 billion people from preventable diseases by 2030.” By integrating artificial intelligence into mobile platforms, rural health care workers could conduct medical evaluations without specialized equipment, instantly expanding Colombia’s diagnostic capacity.
Interoperability breaks down health care silos
Another critical presentation came from SURA’s Open Health platform. Colombia’s fragmented health care system meant hospitals, insurance companies, and independent practitioners operated in isolation, each maintaining separate patient records. This fragmentation meant doctors didn’t have access to complete medical histories, patients repeated expensive tests, and care coordination was nearly impossible.
SURA integrated over 2000 health providers into one connected network. The result was dramatic: Wait times for consultations and procedures fell significantly, and doctors could access updated clinical histories instantly.
More importantly, the platform ensured data security and patient privacy through rigorous encryption and authentication protocols. Open Health demonstrated that interoperability wasn’t just efficient; it was achievable and essential for delivering modern health care in Colombia.
Predictive analytics and real-time monitoring
MIA Colsubsidio presented perhaps the forum’s most forward-thinking application. Their platform analyzed massive datasets in real time, identifying disease propagation patterns and predicting health crises before they materialized. Rather than simply reacting to emergencies, hospitals could adjust capacity proactively, allocate resources strategically, and prepare for epidemic surges.
This AI-powered predictive capability meant hospitals stopped being reactive institutions perpetually overwhelmed by crises. Instead, they became anticipatory systems able to plan ahead. For a country with Colombia’s resource constraints, this represented revolutionary change in health care management efficiency.
Colombia’s mobile advantage and future path
The forum emphasized Colombia’s unique position. With over 72 million mobile devices registered, equivalent to 1.5 phones per inhabitant, Colombia possessed infrastructure ready for digital health deployment. This mobile penetration meant telemedicine, mobile diagnostics, and remote monitoring could reach populations that traditional health care infrastructure never could.
The forum concluded that transformation required collaboration. Dr. Buelvas stated that digital health represents the only pathway toward health care system sustainability. Experts urged public policy supporting technology adoption and private-public partnerships. With AI, interoperability, and mobile technology converging, Colombia stood at a genuine inflection point in health care delivery.
Latam HealthTech Forum 2025 revealed an encouraging reality; Colombia’s health care crisis, while serious, was addressable through thoughtful technology implementation.
Arkangel AI, Open Health, and MIA Colsubsidio demonstrated that AI, properly designed and deployed, could solve real health care problems affecting real people. The forum sent a clear message; the future of Colombian health care belongs to organizations embracing digital transformation.
For patients in remote villages, urban slums, and underserved regions, this shift offered genuine hope for accessing quality medical care regardless of geography or income. That transformation begins now.