To explore how the use of technology can facilitate progress toward globally recognized health priorities, the Forum on Publicâ€"Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety organized a public workshop. Participants identified and explored the major challenges and opportunities for developing and implementing digital health strategies within the global, country, and local context, and framed the case for cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration, engagement, and investment in digital health strategies. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Worldwide the application of information and communication technologies to support national health-care services is rapidly expanding and increasingly important. This is especially so at a time when all health systems face stringent economic challenges and greater demands to provide more and better care especially to those most in need. The National eHealth Strategy Toolkit is an expert practical guide that provides governments their ministries and stakeholders with a solid foundation and method for the development and implementation of a national eHealth vision action plan and monitoring fram.

This third global survey of the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) investigated how eHealth can support universal health coverage(UHC) in Member States. A total of 125 countries participated in the survey ? a clear reflection of the growing interest in this area. The report considers eHealth foundations built through policy development funding approaches and capacity building in eHealth through the training of students and professionals. It then observes specific eHealth applications such as mHealth telehealth electronic health records systems and eLearning and how these contribute to the goals of UHC. Of interest is the extent to which legal frameworks protect patient privacy in EHRs as health care systems move towards to delivering safer more efficient and more accessible health care. Finally the rapidly emerging areas of social media for health care as well as big data for research and planning are reported.

Sixth edition of the hugely successful, internationally recognised textbook on global public health and epidemiology, with 3 volumes comprehensively covering the scope, methods, and practice of the discipline

This open access book explores ways to leverage information technology and machine learning to combat disease and promote health, especially in resource-constrained settings. It focuses on digital disease surveillance through the application of machine learning to non-traditional data sources. Developing countries are uniquely prone to large-scale emerging infectious disease outbreaks due to disruption of ecosystems, civil unrest, and poor healthcare infrastructure – and without comprehensive surveillance, delays in outbreak identification, resource deployment, and case management can be catastrophic. In combination with context-informed analytics, students will learn how non-traditional digital disease data sources – including news media, social media, Google Trends, and Google Street View – can fill critical knowledge gaps and help inform on-the-ground decision-making when formal surveillance systems are insufficient.

Health care-associated infections (HAI) are one of the most common adverse events in care delivery and a major public health problem with an impact on morbidity, mortality and quality of life. At any one time, up to 7% of patients in developed and 10% in developing countries will acquire at least one HAI. These infections also present a significant economic burden at the societal level. However, a large percentage are preventable through effective infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. These new guidelines on the core components of IPC programmes at the national and facility level will enhance the capacity of Member States to develop and implement effective technical and behaviour modifying interventions. They form a key part of WHO strategies to prevent current and future threats from infectious diseases such as Ebola, strengthen health service resilience, help combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and improve the overall quality of health care delivery. They are also intended to support countries in the development of their own national protocols for IPC and AMR action plans and to support health care facilities as they develop or strengthen their own approaches to IPC. These are the first international evidence-based guidelines on the core components of IPC programmes. These new WHO guidelines are applicable for any country and suitable to local adaptations, and take account of the strength of available scientific evidence, the cost and resource implications, and patient values and preferences.

There is a changed emphasis in many health services, with conventional pressures such as budget and workforce constraints, combined with the indirect forces of social change and strategic direction, bringing about the need for more flexible approaches for the longer term. By enabling different care models and delivery channels, telehealth offers demonstrably effective and sustainable solutions for issues such as access to and quality of care. This book presents 18 papers delivered at the 5th Global Telehealth Conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2016. The theme chosen for Global Telehealth 2016 is 'The Promise of New Technologies in an Age of New Health Challenges', and the papers included here cover a wide variety of topics, from theoretical and abstract contributions through to discussions of practical projects and highly specific applied contributions. The book also includes two invited papers which detail recent contributions to two global issues in which telehealth plays a major role: universal health coverage and personal health monitoring. With papers ranging in scope from computer assisted screening technology for diabetic retinopathy to behavior change through computer games, this book will be of interest to all those involved in the design and provision of healthcare services.

This book provides a practical guide to the design and implementation of health information systems in developing countries. Noting that most existing systems fail to deliver timely, reliable, and relevant information, the book responds to the urgent need to restructure systems and make them work as both a resource for routine decisions and a powerful tool for improving health services. With this need in mind, the authors draw on their extensive personal experiences to map out strategies, pinpoint common pitfalls, and guide readers through a host of conceptual and technical options. Information needs at all levels - from patient care to management of the national health system - are considered in this comprehensive guide. Recommended lines of action are specific to conditions seen in government-managed health systems in the developing world. In view of common constraints on time and resources, the book concentrates on strategies that do not require large resources, highly trained staff, or complex equipment. Throughout the book, case studies and numerous practical examples are used to explore problems and illustrate solutions. Details range from a list of weaknesses that plague most existing systems, through advice on when to introduce computers and how to choose appropriate software and hardware, to the hotly debated question of whether patient records should be kept by the patient or filed at the health unit. The book has fourteen chapters presented in four parts. Chapters in the first part, on information for decision-making, explain the potential role of health information as a managerial tool, consider the reasons why this potential is rarely realized, and propose general approaches for reform which have proved successful in several developing countries. Presentation of a six-step procedure for restructuring information systems, closely linked to an organizational model of health services, is followed by a practical discussion of the decision-making process. Reasons for the failure of most health information to influence decisions are also critically assessed. Against this background, the second and most extensive part provides a step-by-step guide to the restructuring of information systems aimed at improving the quality and relevance of data and ensuring their better use in planning and management. Steps covered include the identification of information needs and indicators, assessment of the existing system, and the collection of both routine and non-routine data using recommended procedures and instruments. Chapters also offer advice on procedures for data transmission and processing, and discuss the requirements of systems designed to collect population-based community information. Resource needs and technical tools are addressed in part three. A comprehensive overview of the resource base - from staff and training to the purchase and maintenance of equipment - is followed by chapters offering advice on the introduction of computerized systems in developing countries, and explaining the many applications of geographic information systems. Practical advice on how to restructure a health information system is provided in the final part, which considers how different interest groups can influence the design and implementation of a new system, and proposes various design options for overcoming specific problems. Experiences from several developing countries are used to illustrate strategies and designs in terms of those almost certain to fail and those that have the greatest chances of success

"The principal authors were Carrie Beth Peterson (Consultant in eHealth and Innovation, WHO Regional Office for Europe), Clayton Hamilton (Editor-in-chief and Unit Leader, eHealth and Innovation in the Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation, WHO Regional Office for Europe) and Per Hasvold (WHO Collaborating Centre for eHealth and Telemedicine at the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine, Troms, Norway)."--Page viii.