The World Health Organizations' "Taking Universal Healthcare to the Last Citizen" conference is supporting digital health as a tool that could potentially universalize health coverage.
The WHO pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of the way digital technologies can be useful in providing care.
"Digital health can significantly improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability of person-centric health services and effectiveness of disease management," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, PhD, regional director WHO Southeast Asia region, said in the March WHO news release. "Digital health is a critical imperative today as it can democratize healthcare and fast track what our Region has been working intensely towards since 2014 — universal health coverage."
Digital health delegates and representatives from 40 WHO member countries will discuss ways to create an international mechanism to support low- and middle-income countries' digital health efforts at the two-day conference.