WHO guideline recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening

Summary

Digital health leverages digital technologies to address health needs, expanding from eHealth and mHealth to encompass advanced computing sciences like big data, genomics, and AI. It has garnered interest, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, for overcoming geographical barriers to healthcare. Over a thousand digital health initiatives have been recorded since 2008, with support from global institutions like the WHO and the World Bank.

This guideline responds to the 2018 World Health Assembly Resolution on Digital Health, requesting WHO to provide Member States with normative guidance to inform the adoption of evidence-based digital health interventions. The key aim of this guideline is to present recommendations based on a critical evaluation of the evidence on emerging digital health interventions that are contributing to health system improvements, including an assessment of the benefits, harms, acceptability, feasibility, resource use and equity considerations. This guideline urges readers to recognize that digital health interventions are not a substitute for functioning health systems, and that there are significant limitations to what digital health is able to address.