Digital Health Collaborative First Authors’ Workshop

The Digital Health Collaborative had its first Authors’ Workshop in Washington, D.C. from June 3-6, 2024. The workshop was attended by representatives from Collaborative member countries and special guests from digital health regional networks and organizations namely: RECAINSA, AeHIN, Africa CDC and HELINA. Representatives from Cambodia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, and Tajikistan attended the workshop in person whereas representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ukraine attended parts of the workshop virtually.

As a follow up to the Collaborative’s launch meeting, five workstreams were identified for co-development of knowledge products: 1) A playbook/ how-to guide on all levels of interoperability in health systems, including Health Information Exchange, 2) A how-to toolkit for digital health governance, 3) An annotated inventory of resources, 4)  A guide on private sector solutions, and 5) An orientation, evidence, and dialogue toolkit on making the case for digital health. The authors’ workshop focused on the first three workstreams.

Workshop attendees participated in combined joint and parallel sessions with the objective of identifying key components and country experiences to be compiled and documented for each of the three workstreams. Specifically, they co-developed outlines for the interoperability and governance workstreams and provided feedback to a demonstration of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) companion for the inventory of resources workstream. Participants then identified the next steps for the remainder of the first year of the collaborative for each of the three workstreams. Upon completion of the workshop, members participated in offsite learning where they headed to the United States (US) Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS) National Capital Area chapter’s Health Innovation Summit, which included a digital health innovation marketplace and several talks by US digital health thought leaders.

The World Bank provides technical facilitation for this Collaborative in partnership with the Digital Health Exemplars initiative, including the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, eHealth Lab Ethiopia, the McKinsey Health Institute, Gates Ventures, and Exemplars in Global Health. Financial support for the Collaborative is provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of Japan.