Geneva, Switzerland – Mr. Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran, Executive Director of the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), participated in digital health events and side meetings co-organized by AeHIN alongside the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) on May 23-25, 2023.

On the first day, May 23, Transform Health, PATH, and its partners held a side meeting called “An Investment in Digital Health is an Investment in UHC: Prioritizing action to support digital health transformation organized” to discuss investments in digital health with stakeholders from governments, donors, development partners, the private sector, civil society, and the youth. The participants convened to develop concrete priority actions and recommendations to push for digital health transformation.

The following day, May 24, Transform Health led another side event titled “Towards a Global Health Data Governance Framework” which was co-organized by the Ministries of Health of Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania, AeHIN, and the Africa CDC. The panel included Dr. Anil Samaranayake from the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka, Mr. Setiaji Setiaji, Chief of the Digital Transformation Office of the Ministry of Health Indonesia, and Dr. Gloria Nenita Velasco, OIC-Director of the Department of Health Philippines’ Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS) and member of the AeHIN Working Council (WC). The discussion centered on country experiences needed for a more equitable health data governance, regulatory frameworks that should be required, and the risks that may arise if not resolved.

On May 25, HealthEnabled launched the improved Global Digital Health Monitor (GDHM) at their side event. AeHIN was among the support partners at the launch and was part of the development of the first version consultations. Ms. Fathimath Shamah, Director of the Health Information Management & Research Division of the Ministry of Health Maldives, as well as Mr. Setiaji and Dr. Velasco joined as representatives from the Asia region in the panel moderated by Udayasankaran.

Ms. Rebecca Distler from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation moderated the subsequent fishbowl panel on the emerging trends and opportunities for collaboration where Udayasankaran also participated as a panelist.

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