Your Excellency Ambassador Arindam Bagchi,
Your Excellency Alexandre Ghisleni,
ITU Deputy Secretary General Tomas Lamanauskas,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Since WHO was formed more than 75 years ago, we have been committed to using technology to improve health for people everywhere.
In 1947, the year before our Constitution came into effect, WHO established the world’s first global disease tracking system, using telex machines.
That innovative work continues with our focus on digital health, a core part of the Transformation of WHO that I began in 2017.
We set up the Science Division and the Department of Digital Health and Innovation to reinforce evidence-based guidance and to support moving guidance into action.
Last year we launched the global digital health certification network.
Today over 75 countries are linked, empowering people to travel internationally with certified, digitally accessible health records.
And this year, we launched guidance for Member States on regulatory considerations for artificial intelligence.
Of course, many of you joining us today have been part of the global revolution in the use of digital technologies for health.
Today, we are helping Member States understand how to harness artificial intelligence solutions to strengthen the delivery of health services, supported by guidance for regulatory, privacy, and ethical considerations.
The new initiative we are launching is a platform to help us join forces to help countries achieve their digital transformation goals.
I thank India for its leadership in advancing support for the Global Initiative on Digital Health during its G20 Presidency last year, and for recognizing WHO’s unique role in convening stakeholders and identifying the norms and standards for digital health.
I thank Brazil for including digital health and the Global Initiative on Digital Health in its G20 Presidency this year.
The digital transformation of health is a significant undertaking and will take each country several years.
WHO is supporting countries to achieve their digital health vision through the Global Strategy on Digital Health, which is based on rigorous science and technical standards.
Endorsed by Member States in 2020, the strategy is defined by four key pillars: collaboration and knowledge sharing; supporting implementation of national strategies; improving governance; and promotion of people-centred health systems.
Some of the main challenges we face are fragmentation and overlap, driven by the proliferation of new digital tools built without common standards, or lacking the support of a shared vision.
In a digital age, health workers should not have to carry a separate device for each disease or be required to fill out both paper and electronic records.
A carefully planned digital health future should be one where systems speak to one another – reducing the burden on workers and the people they serve.
And yet right now, wheels are being reinvented because of poor knowledge sharing. This is true globally and sometimes even within the same country.
Governments need quality-assured digital tools and the building blocks for local production and ownership of digital health solutions.
The Global Initiative on Digital Health will support countries to achieve these goals, in three ways:
First, by listening to needs;
Second, by aligning resources to avoid fragmentation and overlap;
And third, by building local capacities and access to quality-assured digital solutions.
I offer my deepest respect and appreciation to each of the institutions who are helping to launch this work today.
Thank you all joining us from around the world, for your leadership and commitment to accelerating the use of digital health to achieve improved health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.
I thank you.