The UN has launched a new Digital Health Programme to strengthen digital health in Kyrgyzstan, aiming to improve access to healthcare by creating “a fully interoperable digital health ecosystem”, expanding telehealth services, and streamlining e-health initiatives. Funded by the UN Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund. With a total budget of just over $4 million, the programme is set to run to 2027.
As well as linking health facilities with the national electronic health record platform, the programme will offer a portal for citizens to access records, results, and other health data. Telemedicine services will be targeted at vulnerable populations including women, children, and those with disabilities, who will be offered “essential medical consultations”, digital sick leave certificates, and have their vaccinations digitally tracked.
Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Health referred to the programme as “a critical step towards modernising our health sector”, speaking of his hopes that improving access to “critical health data” will empower citizens and healthcare providers, “ultimately leading to better health outcomes”.
Earlier in October, we reported on day two of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Summit of the Future 2024 event around “multistakeholder dialogue on investing in digital public infrastructure for equitable future health systems”, which focused-in on assistive technology as a use case. The session heard from global health experts, who called for enhanced collaboration and investment in digital health infrastructure across borders.
Elsewhere in the world, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi has shared how it is boosting connectivity and access in health, by ensuring all healthcare facilities in Abu Dhabi are now connected to the Malaffi platform, a health information exchange platform designed to securely connect public and private healthcare providers and create a centralised database of unified patient records.
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