Kristin Pascual and Charisse Orjalo of the AeHIN Secretariat present the digital health convergence workshop toolkit version 1.2 and microsite at the UNICEF-AeHIN hosted side meeting at PMAC 2025.

Bangkok, Thailand–The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) launched the Digital Health Convergence Workshop Toolkit v1.2 microsite on January 29, 2025, at the side meeting “National Digital Health Enterprise Planning, Architecture, and Capacity Building through Convergence Workshop Methodologies” co-hosted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and AeHIN during the Prince Mahidol Award Conference 2025 at Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre, Thailand.

Back in 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) published the Digital Health Convergence Toolkit, which was developed with the support of ADB, the World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia, UNICEF, and AeHIN. The toolkit guides countries in structuring digital health roadmaps, planning and conducting digital health convergence workshops, and sharing lessons from the six convergence workshops held in the region.

Six years after the toolkit’s publication, more convergence workshops in the region followed. AeHIN, with support from UNICEF and Digital Square at PATH, worked with countries and its Working Council members to develop three knowledge products to supplement the Toolkit: the GAPS 2.0 Call to Action, country experience documentation of digital health convergence workshops in Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, and the use of the Global Digital Health Monitor (GDHM) in convergence workshops.

Kristin Pascual, AeHIN Project Manager, explained that the knowledge products were developed to revisit the meaning of convergence beyond conducting workshops, make the toolkit more adaptive to the needs of the present, and emphasize the importance of convergence from the point of view of government and development partners.

The knowledge products, also known as ‘Toolkit addenda,’ exhibit the current processes and developments in planning and running convergence workshops and provide additional tools for national digital health planning and implementation. They are also featured on the recently launched Digital Health Convergence Workshop Toolkit version 1.2 microsite.

 

The microsite landing page lists the addenda available on the microsite

Charisse Orjalo, AeHIN Community Manager, walked the participants through the microsite hosted at https://digitalhealthconvergence.net. The site shares a condensed version of the addenda that provides an overview of the contents documented in each knowledge product.

Upon visiting the microsite, visitors are greeted by a landing page listing all the available knowledge products. Each knowledge product has a dedicated page, and further content is available on its sub-pages. After reading through the page contents, scrolling to the lower part of the pages would lead visitors to the downloadable materials. The pages were structured this way to ensure that the resources were quickly accessible after seeing an overview of the addenda. Scrolling to the bottom of the pages will also lead visitors to the contact form, which aims to centralize all stakeholder questions and requests.

The microsite mostly displays static content, so it is quick to load. Its pages are closely linked, making them easy to navigate. The microsite is accessible on both desktop and mobile devices. For optimal viewing, accessing the microsite via desktop using Google Chrome is recommended.

Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran, Executive Director of AeHIN, shared the next steps of bringing in the artifacts detailedly documented from the convergence workshops held in Mongolia and the Philippines in 2024 and connecting with digital health focal points and convergence team to see how they are progressing in their national digital health implementations a year post-convergence workshops. Given the relevance for other regional networks and international organisations, Udayasankaran mentioned AeHIN’s vision to turn the microsite into a one-stop shop for any information about digital health convergence workshops and make it a digital public good.

For inquiries on digital health convergence workshops, please contact inquiries@aehin.net or visit this page.

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