Digital Square recommits to advancing health equity through digital transformation
Since its inception in 2016, Digital Square at PATH has worked with ministries of health to align adaptable, interoperable digital technologies with local health needs. Through a five-year extension of PATH’s cooperative agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Digital Square will continue its work to connect health leaders to scalable, sustainable digital health interventions that advance health equity and enhance local capacity to drive and sustain digital transformation.
Digital Square is a PATH-led initiative funded by USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and a consortium of other partners. Digital Square provides technical assistance to local stakeholders who are executing digital initiatives to improve health equity. Digital Square does this by developing and curating resources to support implementation, advancing the scalability and sustainability of mature digital public goods (global goods), and fostering alignment to improve how countries and the global health community design, use, and pay for digital health tools and approaches.
The Digital Square initiative grew out of lessons learned during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where the fragmented and uncoordinated use of digital tools complicated response efforts. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the need for digital tools to support the collection and use of health data, and it has underscored the importance of coordination in the digital health sector. Digital Square provides a mechanism to foster alignment and coordination among investors, implementers, and innovators to reinforce one another in hearing, understanding, and supporting country priorities. For example, Digital Square’s Map & Match project documented how countries, donors, and implementing partners can use and adapt existing digital tools and approaches in response to COVID-19.
Over the past five years, Digital Square has raised more than $100M from 15 investors to catalyze a range of digital health investments, including the development and maturation of digital health global goods that are readily adaptable at scale. These global goods are used in more than 130 countries and showcased in Digital Square’s Global Goods Guidebook. Other key contributions include:
Investing in 38 global goods, which has led to increased maturity for 16 software systems.
Launching the Digital Health Applied Leadership Program, which will advance the skills and capabilities of country-level digital health practitioners to lead and sustain digital transformation efforts.
Providing practical recommendations and lessons learned for designing an electronic immunization registry (EIR) in low- and middle-income countries through the development of an EIR implementation tool.
Researching how market forces can support a sustainable, responsive digital health sector—drawing a wider audience into this conversation by sharing the findings in an Atlantic Re:think article.
Engaging key community health stakeholders, including national malaria programs, to understand the current digital environment in 27 countries, define country-specific priorities for using digital technology in community health programs, and begin implementation of priority activities in partnership with governments.
With an additional USAID investment, up to $120M, Digital Square will build on the momentum it has generated through successes and lessons learned to continue advancing alignment in the digital health sector—bringing new partners to the table while elevating investment opportunities and country-driven priorities. Digital Square will enhance the thriving community of global goods innovators, increasing the supply of high-quality, interoperable digital health tools and encouraging the adoption of global standards for system design and data sharing. Digital Square will also expand its work of strengthening the capacity of regional, national, and subnational digital health leaders and technology experts to develop, use, and manage strong in-country digital health systems.
Digital Square’s work to strengthen country COVID-19 response will continue, particularly in partnership with the new UNICEF/WHO COVID Digital Health Centre of Excellence (DICE). Through this collaboration, Digital Square will provide coordinated technical assistance to countries to support sustainable and scalable deployment of carefully chosen digital health solutions that enhance COVID-19 pandemic response plans and strengthen health systems. Digital Square will also build on its open, transparent procurement process for allocating global good investments while facilitating an increase in country-led procurements, as it has done in several countries over the last year while welcoming a more global set of partners into the global goods community.
In the words of Digital Square’s Executive Director, Skye Gilbert, “Digital Square looks forward to leveraging the expertise of our team and partners around the world to realize the promise of digital health—and ensure that digitally-enabled health services improve the health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere.”
Digital Square is a PATH-led initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a consortium of other partners. The Digital Square team brings together a robust and diverse skillset to play a leading role in digital health transformation efforts designed to close the health equity gap around the world.