Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) supported by WHO Bangladesh initiates the development of a national digital health strategy, an essential step for using technology to improve the accessibility, quality and affordability of health services.
A four days consultative workshop was organized in October by Management Information System (MIS), under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), for reviewing a first draft of the strategy elaborated by a Technical Working Group and to further advance in prioritizing the digital initiatives.
The workshop was facilitated by experts from WHO Headquarter, Regional Office and Country Office in Bangladesh and was attended by senior officials from MoHFW, Information and Communication Technology Division, Bureau of statistics, Directors and Line Directors of DGHS, representatives of NGOs and private organizations.
The event aimed to align the strategy with Bangladesh’s current policies and planning priorities and also to asses and map the current digital health interventions using the Digital Health Atlas (DHA), a registry platform built to map out digital health initiatives for strengthening the impact of investment and coordination.
Attending the event, Director General of DGHS, Dr. Abul Kalam Azad, emphasized that the development of a digital health strategy for Bangladesh is a timely approach and a critical initiative as the country has made significant progress in digitalization that health can benefit from.
WHO Bangladesh
Present at the workshop, WHO Representative in Bangladesh, Dr Bardan Jung Rana, mentioned that harnessing digital technologies would provide concrete opportunities to tackle health system challenges, and thereby has the potential to enhance the coverage and quality of health practices.
Introduction of digital technologies in the health sector already proved successful in various aspect of health system such as health services delivery as well as diagnostic, promotive and preventive measures. However, once finalized, the digital health strategy will provide direction for efforts to use digital technologies in a coordinated way for further strengthening the health system.
Elaborating a digital health strategy is in pursuing the resolution 71.7 of the World Health Assembly (WHA) from May 2018. The resolution recognizes the potential of digital technologies to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to support health systems in all countries in health promotion and disease prevention, as well as to improve the accessibility, quality and affordability of health services.
WHO is committed to support the Government of Bangladesh in its efforts for strengthening digital health and calls all health and development partners to work jointly on this initiative, an essential step towards the goal of Universal Health Coverage.