India aims to launch global initiative on digital health: Mandaviya

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said that India aims to launch a global initiative on digital health as an institutional framework to converge the global efforts for digital health and scale up digital solutions with use of cutting-edge technologies. He was virtually addressing ‘Global Conference on Digital Health – Taking Universal Health Coverage to the Last Citizen’ a co-branded event under India’s G20 Presidency organised by WHO – South-East Asia Region in collaboration with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. “Digital solutions hold the capacity to revolutionise the healthcare delivery systems. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister, India aims to launch a global initiative on digital health as an institutional framework. This framework aims to converge the global efforts for digital health and scale up digital solutions with use of cutting-edge technologies. It is time to move from ‘Silos to Systems’ with collaboration of all countries for enhanced coverage and quality of healthcare services,” said Mandaviya addressing the conference. Addressing the challenges in universalisation of digital health and enabling of equitable access to healthcare services across the world, particularly for low-and middle-income countries, the Health Minister added, “Aligned with the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India provided Co-Win, E-sanjeevani and Aarogya Setu applications as digital public goods exemplifying our commitment to global health and our role in driving equitable access to critical health solutions.” Reiterating India’s commitment towards Universal Health Coverage, Mandaviya cited digital interventions have become the foundations of many crucial health programmes such as reproductive child healthcare, Ni-kshay, TB control programme, integrated disease surveillance system, hospital information system among many others.