The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched its Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH), with the initiative focusing on aligning resources for country-led digital health transformation through “strengthened collaboration and knowledge exchange” along with supporting the implementation of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025.
GIDH’s objectives also include assessing country needs for digital transformation, aligning country-level digital health resources and “unfunded priorities” and building capacity for digital health technologies in meeting “continuously changing needs”.
Membership to the initiative is available for all institutions engaged in digital health.
Described as a “WHO managed network” or “network of networks”; the GIDH will focus on four pillars: a country needs tracker which will look at facilitating investments in digital health in accordance with country priorities; a country resource portal which will identify resource opportunities and identify resource gaps; a transformation toolbox to provide “quality-assured tools and resources” to strengthen country capacity; and a convening and knowledge exchange to promote collaboration across global, regional and national digital health networks.
To learn more about the launch, or to listen to comments on the subject by director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, please click here.
In related news, the WHO has published two reports, in collaboration with a range of other stakeholders including INTERPOL and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), considering the threat of cyber-attack and disinformation on healthcare, and identifying ways to strengthen health security.
