WHO guidance for digital health: What it means for researchers

Abstract

In healthcare, digital solutions have been adopted with zeal, but there is paucity of evidence for benefits and harms of these solutions. The impact, immediate or long term, of digital applications on healthcare has not been assessed. With the overwhelming numbers and types of digital solutions, it is becoming increasingly important to develop evidence-based insights for the integration of these solutions in routine medical care. Digitalization can certainly empower and enable patients and physicians to achieve health objectives. The World Health Organisation has released guidance for digital health after a critical review of available evidence for the benefits, harms, acceptability, feasibility, resource use and equity considerations of digital health interventions. This guidance can potentially inspire and impact future research endeavors for digital applications. In this paper, the guidance has been reviewed in context of the current research situation and insights are shared for researchers engaged in the design and assessment of digital interventions.

Keywords: Digital health; WHO; guidelines; reforms; safety.