India, along with the World Health Organization (WHO), will launch the Global Digital Health Initiative, which aims to pool digital health efforts and investments around the globe, the Union Health Ministry announced on Aug. 16.

According to officials, the digital health initiative, a first of its kind, was unveiled at the first meeting of the health working group in January this year, after India took over the G20 presidency.

“Most of the work in digital health is currently taking place in silos. Various pilot projects have been started, but these are hardly ever scaled up. This initiative will contribute to the convergence of technologies in the healthcare sector,” said Lav Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Health.

He further explained that the global initiative, set to launch on August 19, will help bring together digital health innovations and solutions to improve health service delivery.

The initiative has also received funding from global partners, he added.

Agarwal said the G20 summit is also working to roll out the crucial interim medical countermeasures (MCMs), which is a “network-of-networks approach,” before the next health emergency hits us, and India is on it in collaboration with WHO leading advocacy.

“The global digital platform will include an investment tracker, an ask tracker (to understand who needs what type of products and services), and a library of existing digital health platforms,” ​​he added.

The additional minister further said that India has focused on affordability, accessibility and user-friendliness as key aspects of the healthcare sector.

“The Advantage Health Care India 2023 G20 co-branding event will focus on global collaborations and partnerships to build resilient health systems,” he added.

India took over the presidency of the G20 on December 1 last year and is currently part of the G20 troika, which includes Indonesia, India and Brazil. India’s G20 presidency marks the first time that the troika will consist of three developing and emerging countries.

Agarwal said India will continue to use its G20 presidency to voice the concerns of the Global South.

Commenting on concerns about citizens’ data and its security, Agarwal said India has always had a policy that data is the property of ordinary people.

“This is not the practice that we find all over the world. India has spoken to its partners about the India format, which has been endorsed by the partners,” he explained.

The global platform for data exchange will not provide data about its users, but will share analytics and work on data interoperability.

Agarwal said the G20 health ministers’ meeting will focus on three main priorities: prevention, preparedness and response to health emergencies with a focus on antimicrobial resistance and the One Health framework; Strengthen collaboration in the pharmaceutical sector with a focus on access and availability of safe, effective, high quality and affordable medical countermeasures (vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics); and digital health innovations and solutions to support universal health coverage and improve health service delivery.

The summit is also working to gain support for establishing a Climate and Health Initiative (CHI) in India in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and launching a mobility portal for patients and health workers.