CGDHI Research Presented at G20 Meeting

Dr. Smisha Agarwal traveled to Brasilia, Brazil as a member of the official US delegation to present research findings to the G20’s Health Working Group. On April 7 she presented at a panel discussion called “Operationalizing the Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH)”, sharing the stage with Ministry of Health leaders from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and India as well as global digital health leaders from WHO, Africa CDC, PAHO, OECD, USAID, Transform Health, and PATH.

Digital health figures prominently this year at the G20. The Health Working Group, under the Brazilian Presidency, has identified digital health as one of four focus areas for meeting the overall objective of building resilient national health systems to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. This objective’s emphasis on efficient, inclusive, and quality primary health care (PHC) places a priority on digital transformation and its ability to render improvements in PHC outcomes. GIDH, a new WHO-led network aiming to foster better coordination in the digital health sector, has identified such digital transformation efforts as a key part of its vision. 

Dr. Agarwal contributed to the discussion on operationalizing GIDH by sharing preliminary findings from research currently underway by the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation. One aim of her multi-country study on digital transformation for PHC, funded by Gates Ventures as part of its Exemplars in Global Health program, seeks to identify the digital ecosystem factors that relate to PHC improvements. Understanding the characteristics of a country that has successfully digitized can inform decision making in other countries wishing to undertake their own digital transformation. 

Her initial observations on pathways for digital transformation note that: 

• Strategic investments in health require validated, data-driven insights on digital health maturity and its linkages to primary health care. 
• Digitization investments must consider digital ecosystem readiness, and importantly, the sequencing of these investments in the ecosystem.  
• Before we digitize frontend health delivery systems and further a country’s overall digital transformation, mature levels of infrastructure, gender diversity, and consumer readiness (measured by mobile phone access) need to be in place. 
• Within regions and through the GIDH network, countries who are further along in digital maturity in healthcare can lead by example, sharing insights with emerging countries that strengthen PHC for all.  

Attendees at the invitation-only G20 Health Working Group meeting represented governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, academics, donors, international aid organizations, and the private sector. Convening public officials and digital health leaders in such a manner helped to build consensus about GIDH operationalization, including how to align strategic investments on a common pathway towards attaining digitization for all.