Evidence-based digital investments can help governments save up to 15% of health system costs, reach the underserved: World Bank report

World Bank report finds health systems use less than 5% of available data to improve patient outcomes. Digital tech and data can help prevent and manage chronic diseases, care for young and ageing populations and prepare for health emergencies. India has shown the way with digital health and Ayushman Bharat.

It is estimated that health systems worldwide use less than 5% of available health data to improve patient outcomes, which means that decisions are not based on data or data is not used effectively to make improvements, according to a new World Bank report launched on August 19.

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The report also finds that digital technology and data are especially helpful to prevent and manage chronic diseases; care for both young and ageing populations; and prepare for future health emergencies and health risks triggered by climate change. The report titled ‘Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone’, was released during the G20 Health Ministers’ meeting in Gandhinagar.

The report further found that improving health is getting harder, not easier. Health systems face serious and growing challenges, and policy decisions are too often not based on reliable data. “India has shown the way in digital health and system, where they have integrated the difference and made it work for a large population. Ayushman Bharat is an example that the world is looking at,” Marelize Gorgens Prestidge, lead author of the study, told The Hindu.

She added that within challenging fiscal environments, people-centred and evidence-based digital investments can help governments save up to 15% of health system costs, and reach the underserved.

“In India, we have shown that digital innovations such as tele-consultations have reached more than 140 million people and provided accessible, affordable and efficient healthcare for everyone,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, adding that India believes a digital-in-health approach can unlock the value of digital technologies and data, and has the potential to prevent disease and lower healthcare costs while helping patients manage chronic conditions.

The World Bank in its statement said that that it is committed to helping low-and middle-income countries make digital-in-health a reality to improve health for everyone. The statement said that over the past decade, the World Bank has invested almost $4 billion in digital health, including in health information systems, digital governance, identification systems, and infrastructure.