What’s the news: G20 member countries will be working on a ‘Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH)’ within a World Health Organisation-managed (WHO) framework, as per the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration.
Under the general theme of ‘Technological Transformation and Digital Public Infrastructure’ the G20 document listed a set of goals for fostering digital ecosystems. These goals seek to use all available digital tools and technologies to “foster safe and resilient digital ecosystems.” To this end, one of the aims is to:
“Welcome the establishment of the Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) within a WHO-managed framework to build a comprehensive digital health ecosystem in compliance with respective data protection regulations.”
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GIDH first launched in August: The GIDH or ‘guide’ was first introduced at the G20 Health Ministers’ Meeting on August 19, 2023. As per the WHO, the guide will operate as a WHO-managed network and platform to support the implementation of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025.
Why it matters: When the guide was first presented, countries were largely only focusing on creating an integrated digital health ecosystem for universal health coverage. Dr Nisha Trindade, Health Minister of Brazil, was the only person as per an Indian government press release to say, “digital health should be guided by certain principles like data protection, equality, etc.” Thankfully, it appears that the authorities took note of this concern and added data protection regulation in its final declaration document. These details are important especially for countries like India that do not have a separate legislation on sensitive data like health data of individuals.
What are the goals under the GIDH initiative? The WHO lists the following goals:
- developing priority-driven investment plans for digital health transformation
- improving reporting and transparency of digital health resources
- facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration across regions and countries to accelerate progress
- supporting whole-of-government approaches for digital health governance in countries
- increasing technical and financial support to the implementation of the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025 and its next phase.
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