The digital transformation is reshaping health and health care. Digital technologies already play a significant role in supporting individuals, health professionals, and health systems in a wide variety of ways. Examples are raising health literacy to empower people and communities with the information they need to act on their health; developing technology solutions to enable care teams to deliver more connected care; exploring the use of artificial intelligence to assist in diagnostics, medical research and supporting preventive medical solutions. The potential to harness the power of data and digital technologies to improve global health outcomes is only at the beginning. Yet, the world continues to face a significant digital divide and many of the digital tools for health is not accessible to vulnerable populations. Dis- and misinformation continue to be a significant challenge – as experienced during the pandemic; the impact of algorithms and the protection of health data are an important human rights challenge. The speed with which new technologies are available raises urgent questions of governance and regulation at the national and international level and about the forms of cooperation between private digital platforms and public actors.
