The Global Digital Health Index announces winners of the 2018 Digital Health Data Challenge
The Challenge mobilized digital health networks to encourage their member countries to join the Global Digital Health Index (GDHI)
Washington, D.C., USA – December 11, 2018 – The Global Digital Health Index (GDHI)—an interactive digital health self-assessment tool and maturity model that enables countries to measure, track, monitor, and evaluate the use of digital technology for health within and across countries—is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Digital Health Data Challenge. The challenge aimed to strengthen digital health globally by assessing the state of digital health by increasing the number of countries with data represented in the GDHI. The awards recognize the networks that have the most countries—both by total count and percentage—participating in the Index. GDHI is announcing two awards:
Award 1: Global Digital Health Network, the network with the highest number of member countries participating in the GDHI after the start of the challenge, with seven member countries joining during the Challenge.
Award 2: Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), the network with the highest percent of member countries participating in the GDHI, with 10 out of 25 member countries participating in the GDHI at 40% representation.
These two networks’ leadership in this space is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3—ensure healthy lives and wellbeing for all at all ages—through enhanced data use and visibility into health systems. The GDHI also wants to thank the following networks for participating in the Challenge: the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, and the Central American Health Informatics Network.
The Global Digital Health Index now includes data from 19 countries including: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Chile, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Participating countries can track their digital health progress, identify key areas of need for strategic planning and overall capacity building and advocate for the support that they need, and facilitate cross-country sharing and learning.
“Digital health networks are well positioned to ensure that the enablers of digital health are in place so that the field thrives and contributes to healthier individuals, communities, and countries. The Global Digital Health Index strives to celebrate digital health achievements and identify and advocate for support in areas of need. We are seeing some interesting trends based on the early adopters of the GDHI and encourage countries to participate and the digital health ecosystem to use the platform to inform their investments, strategies and programs,” said Dr. Patricia Mechael, co-founder and policy lead at Health Enabled and one of the partners facilitating the development of the Global Digital Health Index.
MEDIA CONTACT: For media inquiries, contact Christine Dickason at christine.dickason@globaldevincubator.org.
ABOUT THE GLOBAL DIGITAL HEALTH INDEX: The Global Digital Health Index (GDHI) is an interactive digital resource that tracks, monitors, and evaluates the use of digital technology for health across countries. The GDHI is a multi-stakeholder initiative led by a Steering Committee with representation of Ministries of Health, WHO, the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA), Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), Johnson & Johnson, Royal Philips, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and USAID. The GDHI is incubated by the Global Development Incubator (GDI) with digital health technical leadership and facilitation provided by HealthEnabled in collaboration with Dalberg’s Design Impact Group (DIG), ThoughtWorks, and representatives from 20+ countries and 50+ international agencies and organizations. Visit DigitalHealthIndex.org to learn more.