3^rd Health, Law, and Technology Symposium (HELT 2025)

“One Health : Advancing Global Health Through Law and Technology”

Following the success of HELT 2023 and HELT 2024, VUB’s Health & Ageing Law Lab (HALL) is delighted to announce that will take place in Brussels on April 24, 2025. This year’s theme is “One Health : Advancing Global Health through Law and Technology”. The symposium invites speakers and participants from a wide range of disciplines and professional backgrounds to share perspectives on the intersection of health, law and technology.

The "One Health" concept recognises the deep interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. It promotes a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to addressing global health challenges, acknowledging the interdependencies between people, animals, and ecosystems. "One Health" aims to prevent and control these by fostering cooperation among sectors like medicine, veterinary science, and environmental management. It also addresses broader issues like antimicrobial resistance and the impacts of environmental degradation on health. By recognizing these interdependencies, the "One Health" approach facilitates more effective and sustainable solutions for global health, ensuring that efforts in one area support health outcomes across all three domains.

A younger concept is also emerging on “Planetary health”, mainly focusing on the environment (climate change and human health) and social determinants of human health. The widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), big data and related digital solutions across different sectors prompted the emergence of yet another concept, the “One Digital Health”.

This year’s edition of HELT 2025 will focus on key legal, ethical and technological issues associated with the "One Health" concept and their implications on global health. Specifically, a wide range of core subject areas will be explored, including: