Digital health can accelerate the transition from curative services to a primary health care-centric ecosystem, which focuses on preventive and promotive care. It also has the potential to produce cost-effective methods for disease surveillance and programme management, while leveraging emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, augmented reality, the Internet of Things, big data and biotech.

Most of all, digital technologies give us the hope of leapfrogging towards UHC and other health-related SDGs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region has witnessed an increase in the service coverage index — from 47 in 2010 to 61 in 2019 — but the pace is inadequate to achieve the minimum essential service coverage index of 80 by 2030. Further, while there has been a reduction in impoverishment on account of out-of-pocket spending on health from 12.4% in 2015 to about 6% in 2017, catastrophic health spending has remained at the same level or increased in a majority of countries.

Poor health infrastructure, shortage of qualified human resources, lack of access, availability and affordability of health services, and a host of issues relating to health administration and governance continue to challenge progress towards UHC and SDGs.

The use of digital technology is one quick way to address these challenges. In India, for example, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission created over 350 million digital health identification. The CoWIN platform enabled and smoothened the humongous task of vaccinating over one billion people against Covid-19. India’s national telemedicine platform, eSanjeevani, provided teleconsultation services to more than 100 million beneficiaries.

The quality and pace of adoption of digital health can be greatly enhanced by the concept of Digital Public Goods (DPGs), which are open-source software, data, AI models and content that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices. DPGs could include platforms, devices and applications designed to transform areas such as telemedicine, immunisation, mother and child health, non-communicable diseases, information, education and communication and digital health literacy. Governments can formulate policies and frameworks for incentivising the development of DPGs in the rest of the ecosystem by the private sector.

The time to act is now. It is in our collective interest that digital health technologies are targeted to those countries and populations that are furthest behind.

Poonam Khetrapal Singh is regional director, WHO Southeast Asia

The views expressed are personal