DOH Hosts the Philippine Digital Health Summit with UNICEF and the Asia eHealth Information Network

08 March 2024, Manila – The Department of Health (DOH), in collaboration with UNICEF and the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), ended today the first National Digital Health Summit, a three-day event of local and international health and innovation experts on digitally-enabled solutions to help Filipino children and their families receive transparent, timely, and efficient health and nutrition services.   

Supported by the Government of Japan, the National Digital Health Summit addresses the predicament of children missing out on essential health and nutrition services due to outdated and disparate information systems. The strengthened focus on technology and innovation under the health sector’s 8-Point Action Agenda aims to increase efficiency in service delivery, streamline processes and data management, improve the payment of benefits, and engage the private sector in digital health initiatives. 

“From birth registration to vaccine management and disease tracking, strong, innovative systems can give governments the information and tools they need to respond quickly to disease outbreaks and deliver emergency health needs. UNICEF envisions a world where the health and well-being of the most vulnerable children are given focus and improved through digitally-enabled health systems,” said UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov.

UNICEF in the Philippines has already contributed through the Immunization Information System, a proposed interoperable system that will deliver a full suite of functionalities to ensure that every child benefits from the life-changing power of vaccines as well as the establishment of Real-time Vaccination Monitoring and Analysis or known as RT-VaMA, a digital monitoring tool containing checklists and dashboards that helps the Philippine government quickly deploy real-time monitoring during immunization campaigns. 

“This first Digital Health Summit lights the way forward to a transformative era in Philippine Healthcare. Our commitment to integrate digitally-enabled solutions through technology and innovation will ensure transparent, timely, and efficient health and nutrition services for every Filipino child and family, dahil sa Bagong Pilipinas, Bawat Buhay Mahalaga,” said Secretary of Health Teodoro J. Herbosa.