Description of Session
Since 2016, the Digital Health & Interoperability Working Group (Working Group) has enabled a collaborative, community-based approach to implementing digital systems that support global health. The Working Group brings together nearly 250 technical partners from over a dozen countries to standardize the way governments describe their path to establishing an operational national digital health system and to developing a common terminology in digital health. For nearly a decade, digital health practitioners have been gathering to support knowledge sharing and coordination in the implementation of digital health interventions. In 2016, the Working Group formed in affiliation with the WHO-hosted Health Data Collaborative. During its first in-person meeting, the Working Group established its objectives and values. In its second plenary meeting, representatives from five countries’ ministries of health joined the group to discuss specific technical assistance needs. Recognizing that these countries were at various levels of progression along their health system digitization journeys, the Working Group turned its efforts toward co-creating a suite of tools that help articulate, assess, and plan for digital health interventions. These efforts now enable standardized terminology to describe and align evidence to digital health interventions; determination of a country’s progression along their health information system (HIS) strengthening and digitization journeys including assessments of country enabling environments, tool landscaping, and HIS readiness for interoperability; and guidance to ensure that digital health investments align to best practices, reference the growing suite of digital global goods, and evaluate the financial valuation of those tools. The Working Group has collaborated on these tools to strengthen both the individual products and continuity in the digital health sector, thereby reducing fragmentation and non-alignment in the ecosystem. These tools are available for use by policymakers, donors, and practitioners alike to improve the design and delivery of digital health activities.
