Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) supported by WHO Bangladesh initiated the development of a national digital health strategy, an essential step towards harnessing digital solutions to improve the accessibility, quality and affordability of health services.
Use of health digital technology. Photo WHO Bangladesh/ Catalin Bercaru
A one-day stakeholder consultative workshop was organized on 22 December 2020 by Management Information System (MIS), under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), to finalize the draft strategy developed by the Technical Working Group and refined by the international experts from WHO..
The workshop was facilitated by MIS and was attended by senior officials from MoHFW, representative from different Directorate General under MOHFW, Bureau of statistics, academic institute, Directors and Line Directors of DGHS, Regional Advisor (HIS) - SEARO, representatives of UN-agencies, NGOs and private organizations.
The event aimed to finalize the strategy with active engagement of key public and private stakeholders. Stakeholders were invited to share their observations and suggestions to enrich the draft strategy.
“The need for digital health has never been more visible and acute than since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when disrupted access to health service has forced health care providers and patients to employ alternative means to access and deliver health services.
Furthermore, the development of a digital health strategy will allow the country to advance in a more structured and planned way towards the development of infrastructure, connectivity, quality, and validation of the digital applications in healthcare ecosystems. Bangladesh is already at a better stage to use digital technology across all sectors and provides scope for the general population to access the digital solutions to enable the advancement of socio- economic development”, said Dr. Bhupinder Aulakh, WHO Deputy Country Representative to Bangladesh.
Attending the event, Secretary, Health Service Division (HSD), MOHFW, Md. Abdul Mannan highly appreciated the initiative and emphasized the use of digital technology in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Director General, Directorate General of Health Services, Prof. Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam highlighted the importance of the strategy and expressed how it will offer a common platform and enable the country to address existing challenges in the area of digital health such as interoperability, cross border data security, proper use of information.
In August 2019, Bangladesh initiated the development of digital health strategy in pursuing the resolution 71.7 of the World Health Assembly (WHA). WHO is fully committed to support the Government of Bangladesh towards strengthening the digital health systems and welcome all health and development partners to work jointly on this initiative which will ultimately lead to better health for the people of Bangladesh.