The Action Plan, adopted by all 53 nations in the Region, acts as a guide for using digital technologies to enhance people’s health and wellbeing.
To advance public health informatics and data science practises, WHO/Europe, the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the University of Washington’s International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) have established the Informatics and Data Science for Health (IDASH) fellowship.
The key goals of the Digital Health Action Plan for the WHO European Region 2023–2030 are to advance digital health literacy and support countries in better governing the digital transformation in the health sector.
The Action Plan, adopted by all 53 nations in the Region, acts as a guide for using digital technologies to enhance people’s health and wellbeing.
Need for skilled personnel to manage data and health information systems is urgent. The critical importance of strong and integrated electronic data systems and their capacity to direct public health action have been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, stated that “health information systems generate vast amounts of data on every individual’s interaction with the health-care system, including their health status, diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes.”
These large amounts of health data, also known as big data, can be analysed and used to find patterns that guide evidence-based policy-making, allowing for more efficient resource allocation, improving the quality and outcomes of healthcare, and anticipating public health issues.
To support disease surveillance, response, and control of priority chronic and endemic infectious diseases, there is a global shortage of technical leadership to provide the public health informatics basics.
We risk simply perpetuating real-world inequalities in the digital world if equity is not the guiding principle in our efforts to transform health care through technology. To make our health systems suitable for the twenty-first century, we must make systematic investments in the present and future workforce for digital health and data modernization, said Dr. Kluge.
Dr. David Novillo-Ortiz, Regional Advisor on Data and Digital Health at WHO/Europe, emphasised, We must address the shortage of skilled professionals in this area to ensure a more robust response to future emergencies, which are arriving faster than ever before. One of the most important steps in closing this gap is our collaboration with the CDC to introduce a training programme in the WHO European Region.
We are hopeful that this partnership will significantly contribute to giving nations the skills and resources they need to effectively utilise data, enhance their pandemic response capabilities, and improve public health outcomes.Fellows from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan have been selected for a 12-month, in-service training programme to develop IDASH champions.
The CDC’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office’s Deputy Regional Director, Mr. Steven Becknell, stated: “The launch of this fellowship programme is a significant milestone for strengthening our collective health security.
The support and participation of health ministries in eastern Europe and central Asia in the design and implementation of IDASH are unmistakable signs of their dedication to improving national capacities for information collection and use to safeguard public health, bolster healthcare systems, and ultimately save lives.
Priorities identified for the Informatics and Data Science for Health fellowship includes:
automating data analysis and visualization for diseases
expanding digital immunization registries beyond COVID-19
developing united business-intelligence platforms for disease surveillance data analysis
advancing electronic reporting systems
developing spatial analysis modules for multi-disease surveillance and response.
This initiative responds to the significant challenges WHO faces in achieving its goals of advancing universal health coverage, safeguarding people during emergencies, and enhancing health and well-being in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It recognizes the power of leveraging digital solutions to enhance health systems and services and reduce health inequalities.