Digital Health: Planning National Systems
Comprehensive Digital Health course for national planners
Data Analyst Md. Abdur Rahim in the Directorate General of Health Services control room.
Enroll in the self-paced course on the WHO Academy:
Digital health innovations have the potential to greatly improve care delivery and health outcomes all over the world. But too often these interventions are siloed and scattered, leading to fragmentation and a lack of coordination.
Digital Health: Planning National Systems gives national and regional planners the real-world skills, frameworks, and networks they need to coordinate digital health initiatives at scale.
DH:PNS is a Content Global Good that is available in multiple learning modalities and languages, including English, French, and Portuguese.
A comprehensive course for health system leaders
DH:PNS was conceptualized as a course primarily for national planners, but also for other digital health practitioners, multilaterals, and funders working closely with government health officials, to provide them with comprehensive training and hands-on practice managing the digital health national planning process. Ministry of Health officials (the primary audience) can be a hard group to reach, so the format and real-world focus of DH:PNS was designed with their specific needs and constraints in mind.
Training both local and global actors on the national planning process is vital to ensure alignment and cooperation on digital health.
DH:PNS began as an 11 day in-person workshop conducted by the WHO in Lesotho and Benin in collaboration with International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Multiple Learning Modalities
DH:PNS is primarily delivered in cohorts of 25-100 people through implementing institutions. In the blended version, participants progress through the interactive online modules together in facilitated learning cohorts, resulting in opportunities for connection and collaboration.
The self-paced version of the course is available for people who might not have access to the full cohort learning experience. This open learning opportunity ensures that DH:PNS will have the widest possible reach and offers flexibility to complete the course at their own pace.
Curriculum Overview
Digital Health: Planning National Systems is a multi-modal course and training program that equips national planners to create comprehensive digital health strategies and strong governance structures - with a goal of contributing to the overall strengthening of health systems in lower and middle-income countries.
DH:PNS begins with establishing a foundational understanding of digital health, including examples of what it comprises and key terms and concepts. The next module defines health systems and how digital health can optimize healthcare delivery and outcomes connected to health system challenges.
The course then dives into the national digital health planning process which is framed around a national digital strategy that leverages the “enterprise planning approach”.
Some key topics explored in the national planning process include examining the technical architecture of an enterprise and how to implement one that supports a country’s digital health interventions. Since DH:PNS is firmly grounded within the real world, we also cover how to develop a budget for the enterprise and how this assist with sustainable planning.
The final module in the national planning process of the course emphasizes the importance of governance, and reviews stakeholder coordination, policy and regulation, as well as how to prepare a capable workforce.
Following the national planning process modules, we conclude with an overview of emerging technologies and how to plan for these in your enterprise and health system.
Final Project: Putting Theory into Practice
DH:PNS blended delivery concludes with a final group project. This capstone assignment was designed with feedback from past participants, many of whom expressed a desire to share what they are doing in their home countries and contextualize the course concepts in that setting. Final projects may be on Digital Health Intervention Implementation, Budgeting and Costing Digital Health Interventions, Digital Health National Strategy Development, or another topic of their choosing. They are intended to allow all course participants to ask each other questions to each other questions to understand better “real-world” experiences, exchange, and build a support network with each other.