By Ayomide Otitoju
the World Health Organization WHO and the G20 India presidency announced a new Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) today at the Health Minister’s Meeting of the G20 Summit hosted by the Government of India.
The new GIDH initiative pronounced “guide” for short will operate as a WHO-managed networking and platform to support the implementation of the global strategy on digital Health 2020–2025 who serves as the secretariat for the strategy implementation to converge and convene global standards best practices and resources to fast-track digital health system transformation
“We thank the G20 countries and the India G20 Presidency for recognizing WHO’s unique role and strengths in this area and supporting the establishment of the new GIDH network said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who Director-General. Continued support and collaboration of the G20 development partners and international organizations will be necessary to accomplish together what none of us can do alone
who is committed to working with countries to strengthen their capacities and to improve access to quality-assured digital solutions for a healthier safer fairer future
Speaking at the launch India Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said today was a momentous day in the history of the G20 Healthing working group wherein G20 countries not only identified a priority for its relevance but collectively worked towards its launch the new Global Initiative on digital healthing is one of the key deliverables of India G20 Presidency.
since the first who resolution on healthing in 2005 that led the pathway for
development and adoption of the WHO global strategy on digital Healthing over 120 who member states have developed a national digital healthing policy or strategy
While recent experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a boost in digital healthing use many countries express the need for support to move from product-focused and pilot digital healthing
initiatives to establishing national digital health infrastructure with appropriate governance policy and a competent health workforce needed to select, maintain and adapt digital health interventions
the GIDH initiative aims to bring countries and partners together to achieve measurable outcomes by developing clear priority-driven investment plans for digital health transformation
improving reporting and transparency of digital health resource
facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration across regions and countries to accelerate progress
supporting whole of government approaches for digital health governance in countries and
increasing technical and financial support to the implementation of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025 and its next phase
who and partners announced substantial commitments in cash and kind from multiple stakeholders to support the launch of this new Initiative
Digital health is a proven accelerator to advance health outcomes towards achieving universal Healthing Coverage and the health related Sustainable development Goals by 2030 Digital healthing
interventions improve health care in many ways, from supporting individuals in managing their health and wellness journeys to enabling care providers to adhere to guidelines and provide high quality care to strengthening healthing systems by improving supply chains and workforce management
