Group photo from the South Africa National Department of Health

Johannesburg, South Africa—With support from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the National Department of Health (NDoH), in collaboration with the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), convened a two-part Digital Health Convergence Workshop on 8 and 9 July 2026 at Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre, and on 14 and 15 July 2026 at aha Kopanong Hotel & Conference Centre.

The workshop recorded average daily attendance of 82 participants, ranging from 71 to 89 participants per day (see Annex 1). Participants represented the national and provincial government, the private sector, non-government organizations, and academia. The primary objective was to align national digital health priorities and advance NDoH’s commitment to an integrated, people-centred digital health ecosystem that supports equitable access to quality care for all South Africans. A key takeaway was that achieving the long-term vision of “one patient, one record, one connected system,” requires a clear implementation pathway and consistent, sustained efforts across stakeholders.

The convergence workshop is the first of its kind facilitated by the AeHIN outside Asia. AeHIN facilitated the workshop using its established Convergence Workshop approach. The workshop was guided by AeHIN’s ‘Mind the GAPS, Fill the GAPS framework’, which focuses on governance, architecture, people & programme management, and standards & interoperability (GAPS). The workshop began with an introduction to the framework and a working definition of digital health to establish a common understanding of key concepts.

Part 1

The first part of the workshop opened with an overview of South Africa’s digital health landscape, an introduction to the Convergence Workshop approach, and an interactive activity exploring participants’ backgrounds and expectations. Representatives from national and provincial health departments presented their current digital health environments and desired future states. The presentations identified common challenges, including ICT infrastructure, connectivity, limited workforce capacity and expertise, and funding constraints, together with concerns relating to  governance and assurance, interoperability, and cybersecurity. Representatives from both public and private sectors, academia and non-governmental organisations also shared their perspectives on the convergence process. 

To provide context on the role of digital technologies in the health sector, the workshop emphasised that digital health should respond to priority health-system challenges, bottlenecks, and pain points.   Participants were cautioned that a solutions-first approach can fragment systems and silo data that are not used effectively for decision-making. The discussions enabled participants to identify and prioritise the health-system issues experienced across the nine provinces and to distinguish these from ICT-related  constraints. To illustrate the complexities of planning, implementing, and scaling digital health systems, AeHIN facilitated ‘Architects of Digital Health,’ a cooperative board game embedded in the WHO–ITU Digital Health: Planning National Systems course.

An initial assessment of the South African digital health landscape was presented to help participants understand the strengths to protect, gaps to fill, and tensions to resolve across GAPS. The assessment consolidated findings from a structured desk review of existing strategy documents, architecture artefacts, interoperability frameworks, and ongoing initiatives across the ecosystem, supplemented by key informant interviews. During the GAPS group work sessions, participants validated and enriched the initial assessment by contributing inputs, insights, and experiences. This collaborative process helped develop a grounded, consolidated, and comprehensive view of the current digital health ecosystem in the country (see Annex 2).

Part 2

The second part of the workshop revisited the issues identified from the first part of the workshop, and acknowledged that Digital Health in South Africa continues to operate in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Participants applied the VUCA framework to align the vision for the digital health strategic plan, understand the health ecosystem, clarify roles and responsibilities, and strengthen the agility to respond to current and future needs. 

NDoH presented the draft National Digital Health Strategy, and the following six priorities: (1) strengthen the national health enterprise architecture; (2)⁠ ⁠cultivate a culture of cybersecurity and data privacy; (3)⁠ ⁠develop space for emerging technologies and applications; (4) entrench digital literacy and AI competency for the healthcare workforce; (5) maintain an infrastructure baseline with 5G and edge computing; and (6) consolidate continuity of care through personalised care. References to 5G and edge computing should be understood as potential enabling technologies, subject to demonstrated health-system need, readiness, affordability and sustainability.

The design lab sessions then combined in-depth presentations and interactive sessions to reinforce strengths, prioritise gaps, and address tensions across the GAPS domains. 

  • Architecture Design Lab: Participants recognised enterprise architecture (EA) is a key capability for implementing South Africa’s Digital Health Strategy. Regarding the standardisation and integration of EA processes, participants’ responses indicated an emerging preference for greater unification and integration; this was not recorded as a formally adopted operating model. Establishing an EA technical working group was the favoured collaboration model. The session also featured a case study demonstrating the Philippines’ rapid EA deployment during the COVID-19 response. To promote ownership of EA, the PACE (Process Owner, Approver, Contributor and Executor) framework was used to provide structure to decision-making and accountability roles. During this activity, participants mapped the process owners, approvers, contributors, and executors within the digital health EA. This included specific Digital Public Infrastructure for Health (DPI-H) domains, such as trusted personal health records and human resources, to inform future governance and implementation arrangements.
  • People and Programme Management Design Lab: The session clarified how programme management connects with governance and operations, including the key difference between a programme and a project. Specifically, it discussed how a typical programme management structure and a sample terms of reference can support the implementation of a national digital health strategy. Participants identified representation as the most important factor for buy-in into the national structure, emphasizing clear mandate and decision rights as essential components. With workforce identified by participants as the highest-ranked health systems priority and as a priority in the draft strategy, developing a future-ready digital health workforce was recognised as a crucial action requiring skills development (upskilling and reskilling), holistic training (business, technical, support), offering certifications, supporting change management, creating career pathways, recruiting the right talent, and retaining staff through incentives.   
  • Standards and Interoperability Design Lab: The session reviewed South Africa’s progress in interoperability, seven proposed workstreams for the next five years, and the need for a common data model (semantic and syntactic), interoperability specifications and consistent security requirements. National foundational platforms for patient identity through Health Patient Registration System (HPRS) and health-establishment information through the Master Health Facility List (MHFL) are in place, although adoption, data quality, integration and ongoing strengthening remain necessary. Work on standardised terminologies,  common information models and shared health record capabilities is continuing, with governance and cybersecurity identified as cross cutting priorities. Provinces identified the conditions required for standards adoption, the support needed from the national government, and possible commitment for the next phase. Participants supported national coordination with implementation through provinces and organisations, aligned with the vision of  “one patient, one record, one connected system towards improved health outcomes for all.” 
  • Governance Design Lab: Participants perceived accountability as a principal rationale for a national digital health governance structure, with alignment and standardisation amongst its primary functions. The session differentiated governance from management and considered research-based institutional models and examples from Africa and Asia. The examples highlighted legally mandated oversight, independent leadership, clear implementation ownership, cross-agency coordination, regular meetings, shared digital infrastructure, and interoperable platforms. In South Africa, the challenge is to align digital health governance structures across the national health sector, related government sectors, provincial health departments, and relevant regulatory and technical bodies. Corporate ICT governance and health-sector digital governance must be aligned, while health-sector decision rights, data governance, interoperability standards and business ownership remain appropriately located within health governance structures. Stakeholder groups proposed different governance models. No final models were adopted, but common elements included a dedicated national decision-making body; subject-specific committees or workstreams, and a defined provincial role in strategy implementation.
Conclusion

The workshop produced the following principal inputs and output:

  1. A stakeholder-validated assessment of the current state of South Africa’s digital health ecosystem;
  2. Documented governance model proposals and common design principles requiring further consolidation, validation and formal approval;
  3. Preferred enterprise architectural options and preliminary interoperability pathways considered against implementation realities in the public and private sectors;
  4.  Province-identified requirements for standards adoption, conformance mechanisms, and the onboarding for health facilities and systems;
  5. Workforce, institutional capacity and programme management requirements needed to support coordinated implementation;
  6. Inputs to strengthen the draft National Digital Health Strategy, the draft Enterprise Architecture Blueprint, the five-year implementation roadmap and associated investment priorities. These inputs did not constitute an adopted roadmap or approved investment plan.

These outputs represent workshop inputs and areas of emerging consensus rather than formally adopted governance, architecture or implementation decisions.

Next steps

NDoH, with support from AeHIN, should consolidate the detailed findings in the final workshop report. The report should distinguish agreed principles from unresolved options, identify decisions requiring formal approval, and allocate actions, responsibilities, dependencies and timeframes. The consolidated findings should then be validated with national and provincial stakeholders and submitted through the relevant NDoH digital health governance and approval structures.