Dr. Vladimir Choi has a decade of experience at the intersection of health & life sciences, digital technology, and public policy & international development across Southeast Asia, East & Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe & Central Asia, with such organizations as the WHO, UNICEF, and Tony Blair Institute. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with UN agencies, governments, philanthropic foundations, NGOs, think tanks, and startups.

Originally from Vancouver, he has been based in Singapore, Nairobi, Phnom Penh, Manila, Geneva, Hanoi, London, and now, Berlin. Along the way, he has conducted missions to Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Romania, supported consultations in Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, and Uganda, and participated in conferences in countries from Norway to Malawi, from Myanmar to New Zealand.

Vladimir holds degrees in microbiology, medicine, health informatics, and public health from the University of British Columbia, Queen Mary University of London, Karolinska Institutet, and Johns Hopkins University, respectively. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK), Member of the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society (US), 2015 HIMSS Foundation Scholar, and 2005 Canada Millennium Scholar.

A medical doctor by training, I now advise governments and organizations worldwide to realize the potential of public health and digital transformation by bridging disciplines, sectors, and cultures.

With WHO Western Pacific, I helped plan the Precision Public Health Asia Leadership Forum in Kuala Lumpur, devised an innovation fellowship program for public health leaders across the region, and advised on AI governance and capacity-building. As regional focal point for innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic, I piloted surveillance and digital contact tracing platforms, laid the foundations for a regional innovation function, and organized the 1st Western Pacific Region Health Innovation Forum. With WHO Cambodia and the CDC in Cambodia, I developed the digital health strategy and health interoperability standards framework for the country.

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, I shaped the digital health strategy in Indonesia, devised strategic recommendations for digital health in Vietnam, supported Morocco's social protection reforms, advised on pathogen genomic surveillance in Rwanda, and developed TBI's framework for supporting life sciences manufacturing.

As UNICEF's regional focal point for digital health in Eastern Europe & Central Asia, I advised on the design and deployment of telemedicine, immunization, supply chain, and mental health platforms, conducted missions to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Romania, helped review UNICEF's data protection policies, and represented UNICEF at conferences in Uzbekistan and Germany. I have also consulted on civil registration & vital statistics (CRVS) in countries from Cameroon to Mozambique, health interoperability standards for maternal & child health, and the harmonization of Malawi's national health indicators.

Early in my career, I rotated through paediatrics, internal medicine, and general surgery as a House Officer across Singapore's national hospitals, after having completed electives in paediatric tropical medicine and infectious diseases at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (Kenya) and BC Children's Hospital (Canada). I also developed an online platform for the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research.

I then worked at Singapore's national health tech agency on the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) system and the Communicable Diseases Division's electronic laboratory / automated surveillance initiative, reporting directly to the Director of the National Architecture Office (NAO) and Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO).

I received my MPH from Johns Hopkins University, MSc in Health Informatics from Karolinska Institutet, MBBS from Queen Mary, University of London, and BSc in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK), Member of the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society (USA), 2015 HIMSS Foundation Scholar, and 2005 Canada Millennium Scholar. I have sat on committees and boards in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to digital health literacy, from international diplomacy to intercultural harmony.

I also conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of global health governance and digital and AI policy as an affiliate of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin. Previously, I had done research in biomedical informatics at Stanford University and antimicrobial resistance at the Blizard Institute as well as training in healthcare safety and quality at Harvard Medical School.

My work has been published in journals such as BMJ Open, PLOS Global Public Health, The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, and Journal of Medical Microbiology.

I speak native English and Cantonese, conversational French, and basic Spanish and German.