Speech By Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh
Good morning,
Honorable Senior Secretary, Health Service Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Mr Md. Lokman Hossain Mian, Prof. Dr Abdul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General, Directorate General of Health Services, Director, Management Information System, DGHS, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I am honored to attend this stakeholder consultation workshop to finalize the national digital health strategy today. As the world is rapidly adopting digital health strategies everywhere, it is a significant achievement for Bangladesh to participate in this journey with such an important milestone.
Digital health strategies have been recognized as fundamental for development, since the Seventy-First World Health Assembly in 2018, when WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged the Member States “to develop a global strategy on digital health, identifying priority areas including where the World Health Organization (WHO) should focus its efforts”. In 2020, with the Seventy-third World Health Assembly, the global digital health strategy was endorsed.
The use of digital technology has proven to be essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it enabled the continuity of health service delivery during the outbreak. To face the challenges and address the populations’ needs, digital technology has been used in various aspects like mobile devices for laboratory report, commodity management, telemedicine for COVID and non-COVID healthcare, targeted patient communications, community awareness and contact tracing. Moreover, digital health information systems have allowed us to track and analyze the trends in service utilization and make evidence-based policy interventions and strategies during the pandemic.
A solid and comprehensive digital health strategy brings several advantages to the country, such as developing infrastructure, connectivity, quality and validation of the digital applications in healthcare ecosystems. On the other hand, it is of the utmost importance to ensure data privacy, security impact and the choice of digital technologies to prevent the consequences of unintended use or violation of private security.
The initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Directorate General of Health Services to develop a digital health strategy for Bangladesh to address these needs adequately is timely and well fits the global trend. I want to thank the technical working group and the national and international experts for drafting and refining this national digital health strategy.
WHO is fully committed to supporting the Government of Bangladesh in this journey of strengthening the digital health systems. We welcome all our health and development partners to work jointly on this initiative, which will ultimately lead to better health for the entire population of Bangladesh. In the words of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a very passionate advocate of digital health: “The future of healthcare is digital. Harnessing the power of digital technologies is essential for achieving universal health coverage. Ultimately, digital technologies are not ending in themselves; they are vital tools to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.”
I wish you all a very successful workshop.
Thank you.