Roche at PPHA 2025 | July 17, 2025
At the Precision Public Health Asia (PPHA) 2025, Roche presented how digital solutions help health systems turn data into insights that support precision medicine and public health decisions.
At the Precision Public Health Asia (PPHA) 2025 Conference, Dr. Ernest Lo, Senior Medical Director at Roche Information Solutions, discussed how digital technologies are reshaping oncology care and public health by enabling smarter use of data to create actionable insights.
Over two presentations, he addressed the challenges health systems face today – from the rising cancer disease burden and strained workforces to delayed diagnoses and uneven access to care. Dr. Lo outlined the importance of connecting genomic, lab, and clinical data to create insights that will impact clinical and health-care policy decisions and ultimately drive measurable improvements in care.
He noted that while electronic health records were a necessary step forward, they often serve as passive repositories. AI and large language models are helping extract meaning from unstructured data and enabling more efficient, data-driven decisions.
Dr. Lo’s core message: to do more with less, health systems must adopt validated digital approaches grounded in clinical realities, capable of turning fragmented data into relevant, actionable insights.
In his presentation “Advancing precision medicine with digital solutions”, Dr. Lo presented striking data showing the exponential growth of precision medicine in oncology, noting that most cancers will likely be treated using precision approaches within the next two decades. Yet despite this progress, clinicians are often left with incomplete or unstructured data, and policy decisions are still made with delayed or inaccurate information.
He argued that digital technologies are essential to bridge this gap – linking molecular and clinical data in ways that create clarity for physicians and inform smarter health policies. By addressing the data disconnect, healthcare systems could potentially better triage patients, prioritize high-risk populations and ensure earlier, more targeted interventions.
We want to bring data together to create insights for patients, physicians and health systems.
In his presentation, “Novel digital solutions to better inform data-driven public health decisions”, Dr. Ernest Lo shared Roche’s perspective that the future of healthcare requires integrating data from diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and clinical practice – not as isolated assets, but as connected inputs to drive real-world insights.
Dr. Lo explained that while EHRs were an important first step, they often serve as passive repositories rather than tools for strategic decision-making. What’s needed now is the ability to structure and interpret this data – especially through large language models (LLMs) and AI – to help clinicians and policymakers derive clinical insights from complexity.
He outlined Roche’s approach across oncology, cardio-metabolic and neurology: to build digital platforms that collect, connect and contextualize data from lab results, medications and clinical records. But more importantly, he argued that those insights must be made as accessible and actionable as possible. For clinicians, this means closely integrating insights into their workflow so they can better decide the right test/treatment for the right patient at the right time. For policy makers, this means creating databases with the most accurate, up to date and complete data.
Dr. Lo closed with a reminder that technology alone doesn’t create value. Success depends on aligning digital tools with deep clinical expertise, health system workflows and real-world challenges to ensure impact at scale.
Dr. Ernest Lo is the Senior Medical Director at Roche Information Solutions, where he works on the development of digital health solutions aimed at supporting clinicians and healthcare systems.
His work spans the development of AI-powered tools – such as natural language processing and large language models – to structure unstructured clinical data and streamline workflows. He also contributes to the creation of platforms that support scalable precision oncology, integrating genomics, real-world evidence and clinical research to improve care standards.
With a background as a practicing clinician and economist, Dr. Lo brings deep strategic insight to his role. He plays a key part in shaping Roche’s global digital health strategy and product development lifecycle, from concept through pilot.
Dr. Lo is particularly focused on digital algorithms, remote monitoring and patient engagement technologies that enhance safety, education and long-term outcomes.
