The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a call for comments from public health supply chain stakeholders for its draft health product catalogue digital transformation handbook, with the aim of supporting countries with the implementation of “standardised product master data management”.
Supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the WHO’s draft handbook focuses on delivering a step-by-step approach that countries can adopt to ensure “accurate, reliable and consistent product information” is delivered to help consumers verify the authenticity of products and “use them with confidence”.
The handbook offers guidance on a range of topics, including establishing regulatory policies to promote data standardisation, defining and institutionalising data management and governance policies, deploying tech to help manage the product catalogue, developing change management procedures, and building capacity to “sustainably manage” a national product catalogue.
The final chapter of the handbook also encourages the sharing of product master data as “a global good”, encouraging countries to upload product data to the WHO’s global product catalogue to promote standardisation at a global level and to help developing countries build capacity by “leveraging global data and best practices shared through the repository”.
Comments are to be submitted by 20 September 2024, using a designated online form, which asks for general comments on each of the handbook’s chapters, recommendations on amendments, and feedback on implications and strengths.
To learn more about the draft handbook, or to make a submission to the call for comments, please click here.
The WHO also recently published a new support tool to help health systems in assessing and strengthening their telemedicine services, presenting a “comprehensive framework” addressing the “critical need” for accessible and effective telemedicine solutions. The tool is designed to support health system stakeholders to assess their current preparedness for implementing telemedicine services, to decide on their strategic vision for those services and how to monitor and assess them, and to consider the kinds of organisational changes, skills, and infrastructure required to implement them.
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