Universal health coverage is a bold, global ambition—but how do we get there? Medic’s CEO reflects on what’s needed to achieve health for all in the digital age.
There’s an African proverb emblazoned in letters three stories high on the walls of Johannesburg’s airport.
It reads: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Reflecting on 2024, this sentiment encapsulates what is so essential to advance health for all. True universal health coverage – healthcare for everyone, everywhere – is an audacious goal. Without collaboration, it’s unattainable.
This year, the global digital health community made a landmark shift. For the first time, the Global Digital Health Forum left Washington D.C. – a city far from the work that is front and center of the very conversations the forum convenes – and came to Nairobi, Kenya.
I witnessed 1,200 delegates come together in person (with 1,500 more participating virtually) and Ministries from 20 nations exchange ideas that underscore what Medic and many others have been saying for a long time: countries don’t want digital health solutions handed to them. They are ready to innovate, develop, and scale them themselves.
A milestone year for digital health
Kenya’s achievements this year offer a roadmap for success. With a fully scaled national electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS), built with the Community Health Toolkit (CHT), the Ministry of Health has equipped over 106,000 community health workers (CHWs) with digital tools to deliver care and contribute real-time data from over 12.5 million households.
Kenya’s success isn’t isolated; Ethiopia has been on a similar journey with their Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) for years. Together they serve as beacons inspiring other nations that advancing UHC is realistic and achievable. At GDHF, leaders from across Africa and the world saw firsthand what’s possible when local priorities and partnerships drive digital health transformation.
Beyond tools: A vision for community ownership
Medic’s journey this year has been shaped by one simple principle: digital health’s future must be community-driven and locally-owned. I have worked in international development for a long time, and have seen the dominant model centered on singular organizations as arbiters of tools, priorities, and needs, inevitably engulfing the local expertise, resources, and capacity around them.
That’s not the way it should be. We’re taking a different path.
The CHT is open-source with purpose. It’s not owned by Medic; but rather co-created by the communities, governments, and partners who live with the benefits of any good decisions, and the impact of any bad ones. An open-everything ethos invites everyone to the table to contribute their understanding, context, and imperative. This is a sustainable – and democratized – path to build powerful and more resilient technology.
Take Uganda’s journey with their eCHIS. By collaborating with CHWs, NGOs, and technology partners, Uganda’s Ministry of Health leveraged the CHT to build a customized tool with critical workflows in maternal health, disease management, and household registration. Every aspect of Uganda’s eCHIS is grounded in local expertise. Now, children under five are being vaccinated and referred to facilities on time – avoiding unnecessary and preventable deaths.
The cost of fragmentation: A call to action
If there’s one thing the world must leave behind in 2024, it’s the fragmentation that has plagued digital health for decades.
No one can achieve universal health coverage alone. The global health community needs to seek out and invite along as many contributors as we possibly can on this journey. This also means ensuring that we recognize and listen to local stakeholders taking the lead.
When countries see what Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Zanzibar, and others have achieved, Medic expects to see a new level of demand like never before.
Development actors need to work closely with countries and their peers in regional networks to create space to come together to learn with and from one another, strengthen their capacity, and work together to close the gap for the last mile.
If the world is successful in this aim, we will achieve health for all in the digital age.