Digital Square collaborates with Amazon Web Services to strengthen adaptable digital health tools
Digital Square at PATH is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) designed to accelerate digital transformation around the world to advance health equity. Currently, at least half of the world’s population cannot obtain essential health services, but digital interventions can play a key role in extending the reach and quality of services by increasing access to healthcare, improving the use of health data in low- and middle-income countries, and addressing social determinants of health.
Through this effort, AWS will provide cloud computing credits to support the cohort of digital health global goods partners that will be awarded a total of $600K through Notice F—the full list of which Digital Square will announce in April. AWS’s support is part of a $40M global program it launched in late 2021 to enhance health and reduce inequities in healthcare.
The advancement of global goods is crucial for saving lives and improving health around the world because these free and open-source digital health tools can be used across different countries and health program verticals, cutting down on fragmentation and duplication to accelerate scale and health impact.
“This new collaboration with AWS is exciting because if we want digital interventions to successfully advance health equity, we'll need the expertise, products, and services of the private sector working in close coordination with the digital public goods ecosystem to get there,” said Skye Gilbert Yoden, Digital Square’s executive director. “That includes partnerships that enable global goods to access digital infrastructure like secure cloud computing services. We’re grateful to AWS for their generosity and our mutual commitment to a healthier world.”
AWS cloud computing credits will support Digital Square’s Notice F, which focuses on three main areas of work to increase the alignment of digital health tools with global standards and technical guidance:
Foster global goods’ uptake of World Health Organization (WHO) technical specifications and implementation guidance on developing standards-based, interoperable digital certificates for COVID-19 vaccination status.
Create a set of standard implementation examples using the WHO digital adaptation kit (DAK) for antenatal care so that more digital systems will include data and health content that are consistent with WHO’s antenatal care recommendations.
Strengthen the technologies of software global goods so they can be deployed as stand-alone products, while building the capacity of new innovators and implementers.
These efforts will advance digital health tools that are designed to work together seamlessly to help close the global health equity gap.
About Digital Square: 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. Since its inception in 2016, Digital Square has raised more than $100M from 15 investors to catalyze a range of digital health investments—working with ministries of health around the world to align adaptable, interoperable digital technologies with local health needs.
Digital Square’s coalitions, resources, and its portfolio of mature digital public goods for health (global goods) support large-scale, high-quality, sustainable implementations of digital health interventions. 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.
Image on blog homepage for this blog post is credited to AWS.