Optimising digital health investment to deliver UHC

By Transform Health

In this digital age, health care and digital transformations are becoming inseparable. Digital health is already an important and growing part of most health systems and offers countries a huge opportunity to accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage. Yet, in many countries, the full potential of digital technologies to strengthen health systems remains untapped, in part due to insufficient, poorly targeted and fragmented investment.

Transform Health’s report, Closing the digital divide: More and better funding for the digital transformation of health, highlighted gaps in domestic and external investment for digital health and a lack of publicly available information on current funding levels. This poses a barrier to mobilising additional resources, to more effective donor coordination and alignment around country needs, and to ensuring funding prioritised the right areas to ensure an equitable, inclusive and sustainable digital health transformation. The World Bank’s new report, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone, presents a new way of thinking about digital health investments, integrating digital and health as one: Digital-in-health.

As part of a new Global Initiative on Digital Health (under the leadership of WHO), a country resource portal is being developed to optimise investment and alignment with country priorities. This would help ensure a more transparent and coordinated funding landscape that has the potential to ensure digital transformation takes place in a more strategic, deliberate, equitable and sustainable manner.

On the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly, Transform Health is convening a high-level discussion on the Global Initiative on Digital Health and country resource portal, and how we can better optimise investment and alignment to accelerate UHC progress.

Registration will be on a first come first served basis.