Shared Challenges in ehealth Development at the Regional and Global Levels Diana Zandi ehealth Unit World Health Organization Workshop on ehealth, European Parliament Brussels, 24 September 2013 ehealth evolution @ WHO WHO as global health agency promotes evidence-based use of information and communication technologies in health systems and services (ehealth): WHA resolution in 2005 (WHA 58.28) set direction for WHO and its Member States WHA resolution in 2013 (WHA 66.24) focus on ehealth standardization and interoperability; health Internet domain Regional ehealth resolutions - WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region 2006; WHO America Region 2011; WHO Africa Region 2013 2 1
ehealth @ WHO The strategic focus of ehealth at WHO is on: policy and governance standardization and interoperability evidence building, ehealth trends and uptake capacity building through elearning networking and South-South cooperation national strategies 3 National ehealth strategies A national ehealth strategy responds to a country's health situation and goals (including cross-border concerns), and typically includes the following components. 2
Global context for ehealth development Cross-border concerns: What are we facing to mention a few: environmental exposures disease outbreaks food and drug safety events growth of online health information and services Immigration/movement of population Consider role of ehealth in addressing these issues Requires common regional and global approaches 5 Some important shared challenges The enabling environment ehealth strategy to include cross border health related issues capacity building & training in all related areas Standards application of ehealth standards in national ehealth strategies health data standards at national and subnational levels Consumer protection health Internet (.health) access to reliable health information norms and safeguards online pharmacies ; child protection on the Internet Governance issues capture, share, use and reuse of health data rights, rules and responsibilities 6 3
Shared challenges - policy and enabling environment The enabling environment national ehealth strategies and roadmaps evidence building through global surveys, ehealth databases and best practices capacity building & training 7 Shared challenges - standards Standards core component of a national ehealth strategy and critical to data sharing at national, regional and global level standardization of data elements effective implementation of interoperable health IT and health information standards Data standards for collecting, sharing and reporting on issues for example related food safety, environmental health, pharmacovigilance (drug safety) Defining a minimum data sets for standardized reporting across borders (health emergencies, disease surveillance, etc.) WHA resolution WHA66.24 (implementation of health data standardization as part of ehealth systems and services at national and sub-national levels) 8 4
Shared challenges - consumer protection Consumer protection health Internet (.health); unsafe practices; criminal activities Proper governance and operation of health-related global top-level domain names, including ".health" WHA resolution WHA66.24 (May 2013) improve quality of health information on the Internet Essential to ensure secure online management of health data, and to increase trust in ehealth tools and health services 9 Shared challenges - governance Governance and policy capture, share, use and reuse of health data follow-up actions on the Summit on Trustworthy Use of Data for Health discuss a consensus process for research on big data to improve transparency, accountability, quality through: methodology and framework for design, conduct, reporting, etc. principles for good practice by industry, academia, other stakeholders 10 5
ehealth @ WHO THANK YOU Diana Zandi zandid@who.int www.who.int/ehealth 11 6