The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a surge of digital health technologies to support real world public health challenges, including noncommunicable disease (NCD) service delivery. New digital innovations as well as regulatory and policy changes have been enacted to increase uptake of digital products and services, which span a wide range of applications across mobile and chatbot applications, internet, SMS messaging, wearable technologies, health information systems, telehealth, telemedicine, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data collection and Big Data.
Innovation is not without bottlenecks and challenges. We have seen major digital failures during COVID-19 around digital tracking and tracing: data produced is not always reliable, and digital products and services remain unused due to low demand, poor end-user experience, or reluctance to adopt these new digital tools. More so, significant groups of the population in many countries remain completely untouched by the digital world.
This webinar session will explore key learnings on digital innovations and services for NCDs during COVID-19. Speakers will explore how, in a post pandemic world, we can design and implement NCD digital interventions that keep the end users in mind, and consider ethical, regulatory, implementation, technology and sustainability issues. The webinar will discuss some of the success stories on NCDs and digital health, particularly during COVID, and some of the challenges. We will hear from the government, private sector and NGOs and stakeholders.
With a nod to the gender digital divide, this session will feature a female-only panel. Worldwide, women have less access to digital technology and the internet than men and are far less likely to work within the digital sector. A panel of strong, female leaders from the NCD and digital health space, including innovators, policy makers, country experts and funders, will share their insights on how we can advance to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to and benefits from appropriate innovations and digital technologies to improve NCD outcomes.
Speakers:
Dr Bente Mikkelsen, Director, NCD Department, WHO
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, Science Division, WHO
Sylvia Poll, Head of Digital Society, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
Dr Cherian Varghese, Cross-cutting Lead, NCD Department
Dr Nazik Izzeldin M. Ibrahim, National NCD Program Director, Ministry of Health, Sudan
Dr Arunah Chandran, Public Health Physician, Ministry of Health, Malaysia
Dr Devina Nand, Head of Wellness, Ministry of Health & Medical Services, Fiji
Dr Seynabou Mbow, Head of CVD and Metabolic Disease, Division of NCDs, Ministry of Health, Senegal
Adele Waugaman, Senior Digital Health Coordinator, USAID
Amanda BenDor, Deputy Director of Partnership, PATH
Ulrike Kreysa, Senior Vice-President Healthcare, GSI Global Office
Anne Aerts, Head, Novartis Foundation
Jennifer Esposito, Vice-President and GM, Magic Leap
Moderated by Surabhi Joshi, NCD Department, WHO