At the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Medic’s Interim CEO Dykki Settle and Medic’s Director of External Affairs Jeff Jacobs found a new reality: digital health is firmly a global priority.
The Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly (WHA77) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 27 May to 1 June 2024.
Themed ‘All for Health, Health for All’, the Assembly brought together diverse representation from World Health Organization (WHO) member states, advocates, coalitions, donors, and other global health stakeholders.
This year marked the first time Medic sent a delegation to Geneva for this important global gathering. However, it was certainly not the first time for our new Interim CEO Dykki Settle. Dykki even addressed the WHA in 2018 to voice support for WHA71.7, the first WHA resolution on digital health, calling for the development of a WHO Global Digital Health Strategy.
What a difference six years made. Here are our four main takeaways from WHA77:
1. Digital health is firmly a global priority
Co-located alongside WHA77 was the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 Forum’s High-Level Event, Geneva Health Forum Conference, Geneva Digital Health Day, and the AI for Good Global Summit.
In all directions, there were high-level events, side meetings, and conversations about digital health and artificial intelligence. A direct result of, and silver lining from, COVID-19, is that digital health is now firmly a global priority. Medic’s aim in Geneva was to advance the conversation around software global goods and the tremendous impact the Community Health Toolkit (CHT) has had on professionalizing community health workers (proCHWs) and strengthening community health systems.
2. Some countries are seeing landmark achievements in digital health
In the WHO’s Global strategy on digital health 2020-2025 (created after WHA71.7), it’s noted that “digital transformation of health care can be disruptive; however, technologies … have proven potential to enhance health outcomes…” and yet “despite the considerable progress made by some countries, many countries still require institutional support for the development and consolidation of national eHealth and/or digital health strategies and the implementation of their action plans…”
On one hand, we’ve seen tremendous progress in recent years. Kenya’s new Digital Health Act to promote the safe, efficient, and effective use of technology for healthcare and to enhance privacy, confidentiality, and security of health data is a landmark achievement.
Kenya’s nationally scaling electronic Community Health Information System, built with the Medic-stewarded CHT, is another major milestone.
Medic is also supporting eCHIS development in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Togo, and Nepal, and we’re building the capacity of the global CHT Community of Practice to independently design and deliver digital health innovations in 15 other countries.
3. Coordinated investment is still urgently needed
On the other hand, global health funding remains siloed in disease verticals, marginalized communities experience persistent, inequitable access to quality healthcare, and digital health funding is fragmented and insufficient.
We’re on the cusp of digital health transformation and we cannot take our foot off the gas pedal. Tools like the CHT – global goods that are open-source, low-cost, and exponentially scalable – have immense potential to support both mature and maturing governments (and their respective cadres of CHWs) on their digitization journeys.
Investments in global goods and their stewards, such as the CHT and Medic, power unprecedented scale of platforms like eCHIS Kenya, eCHIS Uganda, DISC-Mali, SanteComTogo, and Nepal’s mHealth program. This technology is one critical facet that supports CHWs to do their jobs exceptionally well.
4. Everyone has a role to play in digitization
During the Community Health Impact Coalition’s WHA77 side event, and again at a BBC Storyworks and WHO Foundation co-hosted side event “Healthier Together: A Path to a Better World”, Lwala-supported Community Health Promoter Maureen from Migori County, said it best:
There are 3.3 million CHWs, like Maureen, providing life-saving care every day.
To achieve universal health coverage, now is the moment to double down and invest in digitizing community health care.
Maureen is counting on us.