Themes of the week
The Digital Health Week themes represent trending topics within the digital health sector. Under each theme are a series of insightful and thought provoking events. Click on a theme to explore more.
Future proofing digital health through aligned leadership and a digitally enabled workforce
The future of digital health requires strong leadership and a skilled, incentivised and well supported workforce. Integrating digital health into education and ongoing professional development, establishing the right management structures and support systems, and investing in cybersecurity is crucial.To achieve this will require adequate levels of funding, well targeted to ensure the digital transformation of the health system. It also requires political leadership from new and established parliamentarians and a sustained commitment to digital transformation as a means of accelerating Universal Health Coverage.
Illustrative questions include:
- How can we cultivate committed political leadership to drive forward digital transformation of health systems to achieve UHC in the next 5 years?
- How can we develop a skilled workforce while maintaining and/or increasing the levels of service delivery to achieve UHC by 2030?
- What steps must we take to integrate digital health into the education and professional development of health workers?
- How can we ensure that investments in organisational capacity,digital coverage and cybersecurity are aligned with evolving healthcare needs?
Digital Health, Data and patient centred care: how to put people first
Patient-centred care provides an opportunity to redesign the health system away from disease response and towards personal health and well being. Digital Health and the effective use of personal health data holds the key to empowering patients to become active participants in their own care, and reestablishing a relationship with health professionals that is structured around keeping patients away from the health system for as long as possible. By improving digital literacy and utilising data effectively, we can create a set of empowered and empowering relationships organised around individual patient needs.
Illustrative questions include:
- What should a digitally enabled, patient centric health system look like?
- What steps should be taken to transition from the current disease model to a patient centric model, and how can digital health and data support this process?
- How can we ensure digital technology and the use of data leads to an inclusive patient centred approach to healthcare that reaches marginalised communities and leaves no one behind? What lessons from recent years can guide us in closing the digital divide?
- How can data, improved digital literacy, and strategic investments empower communities and create a people centred healthcare system that leaves no one behind?
Climate change and digital health
As climate change reshapes global health priorities, digital health offers critical solutions for predicting and mitigating its impact on population health . AI and emerging technologies can help predict and respond to climate-induced health emergencies, track the health needs of displaced populations, and guide government strategies. By harnessing these innovations, we can build a healthcare system that mitigates risks, anticipates challenges and safeguards vulnerable communities, easing adaptation to a changing climate.
Illustrative questions include:
- Climate change is now a social determinant of health. How can we use digital technology to respond to it?
- What role do new technologies play in predicting, mitigating risks and responding to climate-induced health emergencies?
- How can digital technology help us track and respond to the health needs, including how to track and address the needs of mobile populations?
- What strategies should governments adopt to ensure healthcare resilience in the backdrop of climate change?
Scaling Digital Public Infrastructure to achieve UHC
To achieve Universal Health Coverage, countries need to scale and sustain their Digital Public Infrastructure. This involves evaluating existing systems, addressing integration challenges, and overcoming obstacles such as funding limitations and digital literacy. By focusing on trust, governance, and health security, Digital Public Infrastructure can provide a strong foundation for sustainable provision of healthcare for the entire population.
Illustrative questions:
- What does it take to build and sustain a robust Digital Public Infrastructure for health in LMICs?
- How can countries overcome barriers and evaluate their progress?
- How do we transition from an approach that has focused on Digital Public Goods to one focused on Digital Public Infrastructure?
- What role do leadership, governance, and digital literacy play in building trust and capacity
Creating an enabling environment for effective and equitable digital health transformation
Creating an enabling environment for digital health transformation requires robust governance, aligned financing, and a focus on ethics and accountability. Countries must develop policies, legislation, regulation and guidelines that ensure equity and sustainability while protecting citizens’ rights. International collaboration, cybersecurity, and better coordinated financing models are essential for building trust and delivering impactful, equitable digital health solutions that will accelerate Universal Health Coverage and protect populations against infectious disease threats.
Illustrative questions:
- What governance, accountability models can we learn from to accelerate the effective and equitable digital health transformation?
- How can we effectively regulate the collection, management, use, storage and disposal of data both within and across borders to contribute to individual and population health while respecting people’s rights to privacy and security?
- How can international collaboration and aligned financing drive the digital transformation of health systems to achieve UHC? What innovative financing models should be mainstreamed or replicated?
- What ethical considerations must be addressed to prevent widening inequalities in digital health? And what governance frameworks are needed to ensure digital health and the use of data contributes to the goal of health for all, and the protection of population health from infectious diseases?
Decolonising digital health, gender, diversity and inclusion
As the digital transformation of health systems progresses, it’s crucial to ensure it does not exacerbate existing inequalities or create new forms of marginalisation and exclusion. To ensure this, it requires diversifying leadership in digital health (to include more women for example), addressing gender biases in AI, ensuring the data of marginalised and excluded populations is collected and their health needs reflected in large data sets, and ensuring that digital health policies do not perpetuate discriminatory norms. Localising initiatives and aligning investments are one way to achieve an inclusive healthcare transformation.
Illustrative questions:
- What risks and opportunities does digital health and the use of data present for addressing or reinforcing existing power relations and exclusions in society?
- How can digital health transformation encourage localisation and challenge gender disparities and inequalities within the healthcare sector? And what could stop it?
- What steps must be taken to ensure that digital health policies are free from discriminatory norms?
- What changes in funding and investment are needed to localise and decolonise digital health effectively?
