FIND statement on priority 3 at the G20 health ministers’ meeting in India

Priority 3

Digital health innovations and solutions to aid universal health coverage and improve healthcare service delivery

Delivered by Dr Bill Rodriguez, FIND CEO
Gandhinagar, India, 19 August 2023

Thank you chair, let me congratulate the Indian G20 Presidency and WHO for leadership in advancing health transformation through the digital health Initiative.

The breathtaking technical innovations in digital health can bring an accurate diagnosis closer and closer to people in their homes and in primary health care settings anywhere in the world.

The pandemic fast tracked the development of digital tools for diagnosis, including user-friendly chatbots, telemedicine services, AI-based imaging and clinical decision support tools. Given the potential for diagnostic transformation, we strongly support the establishment of the Global Initiative for Digital Health.

We highlight two key priorities for the Initiative:

• artificial intelligence for screening and diagnosis in primary health; and
• interoperability standards.

Finally, As Secretary Becerra and many others today have noted, we must not let technology outpace equity. Like all health technologies, digital tools have no inherent moral bias toward equity. We believe GIDH can foster equitable access, can reduce the digital and the diagnostic divide, and can help achieve health for all—if those goals are pursued with clear intent.

Thank you.