Paulo Urioh, a reproductive and child health nurse-in-charge reviews immunization data on his tablet at Mareuhealth center in Tanzania. Photo: PATH/Trevor Snapp.
Media contacts:
- Angelica Spraggins | WHO office at the UN in New York | aspraggins@whoun.org | +1 917 388 5562
- Kate Davidson | PATH | media@path.org
The World Health Organization and PATH today announced a landmark partnership to accelerate digital health transformation across the globe. The WHO-PATH partnership on Innovation and Global Digital Health aims to identify and deliver the next wave of innovations and digital solutions that are critical to improving health systems, health outcomes, and health equity.
The partnership will enable WHO to develop its first dedicated digital health strategy, taking forward the digital health resolution passed unanimously at this year’s World Health Assembly.
The strategy will focus on advancing universal health coverage and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals while preparing for future global health challenges. The collaboration will identify and support the implementation of concrete, scalable solutions in areas where technology and innovation can have the greatest global public health impact.
Through this partnership, public institutions, businesses, social enterprises, and investors will work together to leapfrog old barriers and push the boundaries of what is possible in today’s global public health system. By recognizing and strengthening existing WHO global and regional partnerships, the collaboration will support countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas in advancing their own transformational digital health efforts.
For decades, PATH and WHO have worked hand in hand to improve global health, protecting hundreds of millions of people from meningitis A and Japanese Encephalitis, distributing over 7 billion vaccine vial monitors to ensure vaccine efficacy and reduce costly wastage, and introducing the revolutionary malaria vaccine RTS,S.
The two organizations have partnered on numerous successful digital initiatives—including the first formal WHO classification and guidelines for digital health interventions, and the Global Digital Health Atlas, a technology registry platform designed to strengthen impact and facilitate scale of emerging health innovations. In this new collaboration, WHO and PATH will partner to carry the promise of technological innovation and digital health to every corner of the globe.