17.03.2017

Broadband Commission Working Group

New report on digital health released

Novartis Foundation "The potential for harnessing the exponential growth in information and communications technology (ICT) to meet health challenges is clear. Mobile is the fastest adopted technology of all time: in 1991, mobile cellular penetration stood at less than 1%, compared to 99.7% in 2016 – and there will be an estimated 5.6 billion smartphones by 2020. Around 90% of that growth will come from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Despite its promise, however, the digital health landscape today is highly fragmented. The result is a myriad of projects and applications that rarely reach scale and – if they were to expand – could even strain health systems. To help solve these challenges and uncover how we can truly harness the power of ICT for health, we need to better understand the key elements involved." (Photo: Novartis Foundation)