State of Digital Health around the world today

The Global Digital Health Monitor (GDHM) is an interactive web-based resource that aims to track, monitor, and assess the enabling environment for digital health throughout the world.

  • Phase
  • 1
  • 2
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  • 4
  • 5
  • NA
Methodology

Our Approach

In early 2016, the GDHM team, together with representatives from 20+ countries and 50+ international agencies and organizations, designed version 1.0 of the Global Digital Health Index (GDHI). In 2022, the resource underwent a year-long indicator and platform review and redesign process to align the indicators with the WHO Global Digital Health Strategy as a complement to the WHO Digital Health Atlas and includes a greater focus on AI, equity, gender, and Universal Health Coverage. In addition, the name was changed to the Global Digital Health Monitor (GDHM) to articulate the tool’s value in providing a platform to monitor digital health progress at a country, regional and global level. The updated GDHM includes year on year performance monitoring country visualizations, regional visualizations, and country to country comparisons.


To develop the indicators, the GDHM team:

  • Conducted a landscape review of global data available through multilateral organizations.
  • Mapped available data by reviewing existing frameworks and tools developed by experts to help practitioners and countries assess the strength and maturity of the enabling environment relevant to digital health.
  • Convened digital health experts to develop use cases for GDHM and refine and define an initial set of recommended indicators into a user-friendly and manageable list.

List of GDHM Indicators - See here

Data Collection and Verification

The GDHM team works with country partners and Ministry of Health representatives who are leading digital health efforts in their respective countries to collect data for each country. These country partners submit their country’s data through an annual GDHM survey, and select the appropriate phase for each indicator as well as rationale and evidence to support these phases. The GDHM team verifies the collected data before publishing it. Broader Health Data from the World Bank Development Indicators 2019 has been included to contextualize digital health maturity.

Calculating Averages and Benchmarking

The GDHM uses the main indicators in each category to calculate the overall country average. While sub-indicators are included to add greater specificity to specific GDHM indicators, they are not used in calculating the Component Phase or the Country or Global Averages. The GDHM enables countries to benchmark themselves against the Global Average or a specific overall phase.

Pre-populated data from publicly available sources

For countries that have not completed a survey in the Global Digital Health Monitor, data was extracted from publicly available information to pre-populate the indicators below to give a general sense of broader digital ecosystem maturity in alignment with relevant indicators. While this data serves as a proxy for these digital health indicators for countries, data completed by government officials provide a more accurate and robust picture of the digital health progress in each country. We encourage countries that have not submitted full data to request a country link to do so at their earliest convenience.


Indicators that used proxy data from publicly available sources to pre-populate countries that have not completed a survey:

  • Indicator 2a: Health is prioritized in national digital transformation and data governance policies
  • Indicator 4: Diversity, Equity, and human rights analysis, planning and monitoring included in national digital health strategies and plans
  • Indicator 6a: private sector participation and investments in digital health
  • Indicator 7: legal framework for data protection (security)
  • Indicator 8: Laws or Regulations for privacy, consent, confidentiality, and access to health information (Privacy)
  • Indicator 9: Protocol for regulating or certifying devices and/or health services- including provisions for AI and algorithms (at higher stages of maturity)
  • Indicator 17: Network readiness
  • Indicator 18: Planning and support for ongoing digital health infrastructure maintenance

Data sources included the GovTech Maturity Indicator (GTMI), the Network Readiness Index, and the GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index.