Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 26;7(11):e30399.
doi: 10.2196/30399.

Defining Digital Public Health and the Role of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation: Scoping Review

Ihoghosa Iyamu  1   2 , Alice X T Xu  1 , Oralia Gómez-Ramírez  1   2   3 , Aidan Ablona  2 , Hsiu-Ju Chang  2 , Geoff Mckee  2 , Mark Gilbert  1   2
Affiliations

Defining Digital Public Health and the Role of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation: Scoping Review

Ihoghosa Iyamu et al. JMIR Public Health Surveill. .

Abstract

Background: The recent proliferation and application of digital technologies in public health has spurred interest in digital public health. However, as yet, there appears to be a lack of conceptual clarity and consensus on its definition.

Objective: In this scoping review, we seek to assess formal and informal definitions of digital public health in the literature and to understand how these definitions have been conceptualized in relation to digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation.

Methods: We conducted a scoping literature search in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Google Scholar, and 14 government and intergovernmental agency websites encompassing 6 geographic regions. Among a total of 409 full articles identified, we reviewed 11 publications that either formally defined digital public health or informally described the integration of digital technologies into public health in relation to digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation, and we conducted a thematic analysis of the identified definitions.

Results: Two explicit definitions of digital public health were identified, each with divergent meanings. The first definition suggested digital public health was a reimagination of public health using new ways of working, blending established public health wisdom with new digital concepts and tools. The second definition highlighted digital public health as an asset to achieve existing public health goals. In relation to public health, digitization was used to refer to the technical process of converting analog records to digital data, digitalization referred to the integration of digital technologies into public health operations, and digital transformation was used to describe a cultural shift that pervasively integrates digital technologies and reorganizes services on the basis of the health needs of the public.

Conclusions: The definition of digital public health remains contested in the literature. Public health researchers and practitioners need to clarify these conceptual definitions to harness opportunities to integrate digital technologies into public health in a way that maximizes their potential to improve public health outcomes.

International registered report identifier (irrid): RR2-10.2196/preprints.27686.

Keywords: definition; digital public health; digital transformation; digitalization; digitization; mobile phone; scoping review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the search and study selection process following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for scoping reviews.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Emergent perspectives on digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation in relation to public health from thematic analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Brewer LC, Fortuna KL, Jones C, Walker R, Hayes SN, Patten CA, Cooper LA. Back to the future: achieving health equity through health informatics and digital health. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2020 Jan 14;8(1):e14512. doi: 10.2196/14512. https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/1/e14512/ v8i1e14512 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . WHO Guideline: Recommendations on Digital Interventions for Health Systems Strengthening. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2019. pp. 1–2. - PubMed
    1. Crawford A, Serhal E. Digital health equity and COVID-19: the innovation curve cannot reinforce the social gradient of health. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jun 02;22(6):e19361. doi: 10.2196/19361. https://www.jmir.org/2020/6/e19361/ v22i6e19361 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Draft Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025. World Health Organization (WHO) 2020. [2021-11-07]. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/documents/gs4dhdaa2a9f352b0445ba... .
    1. Azzopardi-Muscat N, Sørensen K. Towards an equitable digital public health era: promoting equity through a health literacy perspective. Eur J Public Health. 2019 Oct 01;29(Supplement_3):13–7. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckz166. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/31738443 5628050 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types