Since 2021, the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) has been actively partnering with Transform Health in the Health Data Governance (HDG) agenda. Following the introduction of the HDG Draft Model Law on April 19, 2024, AeHIN conducted a regional consultation to obtain feedback in the Asia region.

Continuing the conversations on the HDG Draft Model Law, AeHIN conducted the webinar entitled “Health Data Governance Draft Model Law: How to Implement?” on November 7, 2024, in conjunction with Digital Health Week 2024, which ran from November 4 to 10. The objective of this webinar was to bring perspectives and insights from other countries and regions towards the implementation of the HDG Draft Model Law. A total of 38 attendees from 16 countries participated in the session.

 

Insights from Sri Lanka

Dr. Palitha Karunapema and Dr. Pradeep Sylva from the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka shared updates on Sri Lanka’s digital health governance. Sri Lanka has established a Digital Health Blueprint and a National Digital Health Governance Framework, both overseen by the National e-Health Steering Committee. Dr. Karunapema and Dr. Sylva highlighted the importance of partner collaboration, such as Transform Health’s HDG Draft Model Law, which helps determine data governance policy advocacy in the country. Partner collaboration can also help with capacity building, sharing of technological resources, tools, expertise, investment, and working together to integrate data from various sources. 

Insights from the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO WPRO)

Dr. Kidong Park, Director of Data Strategy and Innovation at WHO WPRO, talked about the Regional Action Framework (RAF) on Digital Health in the Western Pacific and its vision for countries to harness digital transformation for people-centric health and health care. The five action domains are (i) governance, (ii) socio-technical infrastructure, (iii) financing and economics, (iv) digital health solutions and (v) data. RAF and HDG draft model law can work hand-in-hand to help countries transform their digital health governance and transformation. 

Insights from HELINA

Mpaata Jerome Owagage, who led the implementation of the HDG Draft Model Law in three countries—Uganda, Rwanda, and Malawi—shared several key considerations for implementing it. One of them is the need to adapt to local context and culture, as well as legal and healthcare systems. Another point is to think about soft law alternatives such as guidelines or regulations. Other suggestions include understanding the financial budget, policy framework related to HDG, technical infrastructure needs in the local setting, and improving public awareness. 

Insights from Indonesia

Anis Fuad, a member of the AeHIN Governing Committee and the head of the Cross-Cutting Research Group of the University of Gadjah Mada, shared the need to incorporate HDG  in the context of tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) using the OneHealth approach. Fuad’s team used the AeHIN’s Mind the GAPS-Fill the GAPS components (Governance, Architecture, People and Program Management, and Standards & Interoperability) in identifying their current needs and challenges

In Indonesia, they have yet to discuss the HDGs in detail, but from their perspective, the HDGs are important, especially since Indonesia just published its new law – Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 27 of 2022). Fuad added that they hope that by learning from other countries, the next step in the Indonesian AMR surveillance would be how to implement the HDG draft model law to support the AMR surveillance in Indonesia.

Webinar Reactions

Tengis Sukhee, Secretary of the State Productivity Committee from Mongolia, shared that due to the influx of technologies and software, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Mongolia decided to have minimum requirements for health information systems and softwares to ensure standardization.

Judge Thidarat Liamsomboon,  a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) candidate from Thailand focusing on digital health technology and legal framework, emphasized that good governance for health data is important to ensure health information is managed, protected and being utilized to maximize the benefits. The traditional regulatory process is lacking behind these new technology developments and it can create a lot of constraints and challenges for digital health innovations and pressuring people to adopt the new standard, especially the model law. 

Question & Answer (Q&A)

During the Q&A session, Dr. Senthilnathan Padmanaban from India inquired about Owagage’s experiences in the three countries, specifically whether these countries had established data protection laws as a foundation before implementing the Draft Model Law on HDG, as this appears to be a prerequisite. He also asked how the existing legislations were aligned with the HDG Draft Model Law. 

Owagage outlined three approaches to implementing or incorporating the Draft Model Law on HDG in countries:

  1. Starting Fresh: Initiate the process through parliamentary, senate, or legislative bodies. 
  2. Implementing as Regulations: An example of this is the Republic of Rwanda, which is exploring this method.
  3. Implementing as Guidelines: Adopting the model law in the form of non-binding guidelines.

Owagage also highlighted that the biggest healthcare provider in these countries is the government. 

AeHIN Executive Director Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran made the concluding remarks by thanking all the speakers, reactors and participants for their time and value addition in this session. The webinar was very informative and sparked interest among the participants to consider the possibilities of adopting the HDG draft model law in their country. 

*Digital Health Week is a yearly global week of action that brings stakeholders together to explore the opportunities and challenges of digital health and highlight the critical role it plays in achieving universal health coverage led by Transform Health.