The 71st World Health Assembly, held in Geneva last week, dedicated part of its program to eHealth. Delegates agreed to ask states to give priority to the development of digital technologies in the field of health as a catalyst for multidirectional communications, feedback loops, and adaptive data-based management. On the table, the will to create a global strategy for digital health.
Madrid – May 30, 2018. Underlining the need to ensure that digital health solutions reinforce current models of health service delivery, improve integrated and patient-centered health services, and contribute to health equity, as well as to correct the lack of scientific data on the impact of digital health in these areas, sixteen countries have submitted a draft resolution requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop an international strategy on eHealth.
In a changing and disruptive environment like the current one, the text, dated May 21, recognizes the potential of digital technologies to advance in sustainable development, and in particular, to promote universal health coverage. Under the protection of WHO and without forgetting that human interaction remains a key element for the well-being of patients, delegates have asked the organization to support the extension of these technologies through the provision of technical assistance and normative guidance, monitoring trends and promoting best practices to improve access to health services.
Member States are requested to identify the areas in which they would benefit from WHO assistance, such as the implementation, evaluation, and expansion of digital health services and applications, data security, and ethical and legal issues. Examples of existing digital health technologies include systems that track disease outbreaks using mass externalization or community notification and mobile phone text messages for a positive behavioral change regarding the prevention of diseases.
Similarly, it is encouraged to consider how digital technologies could be integrated into the current infrastructures and regulations of each country's health systems in order to support national health priorities and reduce the burden on health systems. In this regard, members are encouraged to disseminate best practices and successful examples of digital health architecture, programs, and services, as examples of effective policies and practical application among the international community and, more specifically, through WHO and networks, digital platforms, and bilateral, regional, interregional and global centers.
Action plan
In accordance with the resolution, it is appropriate to determine the priority areas in which normative instructions and technical advice on digital health should be available, in particular, among others: deficiencies in research, guidelines based on tests, assistance for application and expansion, financing and operation models, content, evaluation, cost-effectiveness and sustainability, data security and interoperability, ethical-legal framework, and reuse and adaptation of existing digital health tools and other relevant instruments. This strengthens the resilience in matters of public health and opportunities to improve access to quality data and their monitoring, exchange, and use, as well as the direct participation of citizens, health professionals, and governments.
Pan American eHealth
Earlier this month, the Pan American Health Organization, which sponsors the Practicum Foundation, launched a virtual directory of digital health profiles that includes data and statistics from forty-seven states and territories in America. The profiles include the health situation of each country: basic indicators, life expectancy, and total health expenditure per capita, among others; as well as its degree of development in digital health compiled by the WHO Global Observatory of eHealth. This includes national policies and strategies, legal frameworks, telehealth, electronic medical records, mHealth (mobile), and the use of eLearning. Among other things, eHealth seeks to ensure that the application of technology to the health sector optimizes the use of time and resources and increases inputs to make complex decisions, for example, regarding the treatment of a patient.
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