Digital health research
WHO’s work in digital health research
WHO has supported research in digital health through the development of resources to:
- Improve the consistency of terms used to describe digital interventions;
- Strengthen research practices;
- Set standards on reporting of digital health publications;
- Establish agendas for action;
- Facilitate implementation research that measure and plan for scale of digital implementations;
- Establish research gaps associated with specific digital interventions represented in the WHO Guideline on Digital Health Interventions.
WHO classification of digital interventions, services and applications in health
The updated classification categorizes the different ways in which digital health interventions embedded into digital applications and services are being used to address personal and health system needs. It is a resource that can be leveraged when identifying and capturing digital health priorities and during the process of planning and implementing a digital health enterprise. This taxonomy can also be used to support the synthesis of evidence and research.
The WHO Guideline Recommendations on Digital Health Interventions on Health Systems Strengthening provides evidence-based recommendations on nine different digital health interventions and accompanying guidance on considerations to ensure beneficial implementation. A byproduct of the guidelines evidence review process established numerous evidence gaps, which are detailed in a chapter in the Guideline. The compiled research questions reflect the general areas in which the available evidence was found to be of low or very low certainty or confidence, or where no direct evidence was identified, broadly in the areas of effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and gender, equity and rights.
This provides step-wise guidance to improve the quality of research in digital health. It explores different dimensions of digital health research, including an assessment of the technical functionality and feasibility, attributable impact, and appropriate reporting of findings in order to meaningfully contribute towards evidence syntheses.
WHO digital health for the End TB Strategy - an agenda for action
This agenda highlights strategic directions to integrate digital health into tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care activities in support of WHO’s End TB Strategy. In particular, it promotes continued monitoring and investment in implementation research on digital health interventions to increase the evidence base on effectiveness and impact.
Policy makers, funders and implementers of eHealth systems need to ensure that eHealth solutions are subjected to, and informed by, rigorous evaluations. This consensus statement of global eHealth experts provides nine eHealth evaluation principles. Each of these principles is essential in the design, deployment, and application of eHealth evaluation. Findings should be used and contribute to evidence generation, synthesis and documentation, including peer-reviewed articles.
Guidelines for reporting of health interventions using mobile phones: mobile digital health evidence reporting and assessment (mERA) checklist
The multidisciplinary nature of digital health and the rapid pace of technology development mean that the quality of reporting on evidence on mHealth interventions has been varied. This checklist tool, commissioned by WHO, helps support consistency in the reporting of evidence and helps elevate the quality of future research publications.
The WHO MAPS Toolkit: mHealth assessment and planning for scale
This toolkit is a comprehensive guide for assessing digital health project maturity, which also facilitates planning scale up and achieving sustainability. This implementation research and toolkit helps users to identify areas that require further attention, and then to devise strategies to overcome any challenges or obstacles to progress to scale and institutionalization.
Establishing a global research strategy on digital health
WHO has started to engage in a consultative multistakeholder process with the goal of establishing a global research strategy on digital health to encourage coordinated research to: address identified gaps, improve the overall quality of evidence, enhance the capacity of the global ecosystem to conduct research of importance for the global health community, and to establish priority research questions and studies to advance the digital health field.