What a Pan-American Highway for Digital Health would enable is that, if a person from El Salvador travels to Jamaica and experiences a health complication, their doctors could access their medical history and learn, for example, that the person is allergic to penicillin, among other relevant health data. This Pan-American Highway for Digital Health is possible, and the countries in the region are consolidating it. From the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), along with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), we are supporting this consolidation and, to do so, we convened with the region’s countries at RELACSIS 4.0, a Regional Meeting and Connectathon that occurred in São Paulo, Brazil. This event marked the second gathering between the IDB, PAHO, and the countries. Thirty-three countries, 246 individuals (44% women), and 22 strategic partners participated.
During the four-day meeting in Brazil, the countries updated us on their challenges and opportunities regarding digital health through working sessions and presentations. There were 22 debates among the countries and 14 presentations. From the IDB, in partnership with PAHO, we took note of these reflections to determine how to support this digital transformation in the coming years. At the meeting, we made concrete progress on the Regional Plan for Information Systems for Health (IS4H) for the 2024-2030 period.
A Digital Health Highway with solid foundations
We can all agree that constructing an actual highway, where people can travel with their vehicles, requires sturdy structures or foundations. In the digital realm, this is the same. A Pan-American Highway for Digital Health needs solid foundations. Therefore, within RELACSIS 4.0, we held the second LACPASS Connectathon, a connectivity marathon where technical teams from participating health ministries conducted tests to achieve cross-border interoperability. Having cross-border interoperability would allow all people in Latin America and the Caribbean to access their regular health services, regardless of their location within the region.
Building on the work done in the 2022 Connectathon, this time, the technical teams from the countries conducted tests that, once implemented, would make the following possible:
- Allowing individuals, wherever they are, to access their international medical history (International Patient Summary) with relevant health data. This would enable, for instance, doctors to provide quality care in emergencies by knowing the patient’s medical history.
- Enabling countries to send digital vaccination certificates to citizens’ digital wallets, ensuring they always have them with them.
- Verifying the legitimacy of a digital vaccination certificate when a person travels from one country to another. During the Connectathon, countries prepared technically to be part of the World Health Organization’s Global Network for Digital Health Certification, enabling them to verify the legitimacy of certificates from other countries.
Moreover, the countries also issued, validated, and verified COVID-19 vaccination certificates according to WHO standards. They did the same for yellow fever, polio, and measles vaccination certificates.
While many countries have made tangible progress in some of these areas, the connectivity marathon aimed to demonstrate once again that regional interoperability is possible. It aimed to provide technical teams with more tools to continue advancing the transformation of their health systems. The second LACPASS Connectathon was supported by RACSEL (American Network for Cooperation on Electronic Health).
Results:
While 100% of countries managed to generate International Patient Summaries (IPS) and almost all of them were able to join the WHO Network to verify that a vaccination certificate is legitimate, 70% were able to carry out the exercise to validate Vaccination Certificates from other countries.
Results by region:
The regions that stood out the most in the tests were Central America and the Southern Cone.
In our daily lives, highways are vital infrastructure and are not only used to move from one country to another but also to move within a country: in addition to cross-border interoperability, we need interoperability within nations.
We have already laid the pavement for the Highway, now we have to continue to pay attention to the permitted speeds, to see how driver’s licenses are defined and, above all, that this highway has cars, that is, data. Well-managed health data, exchanged in a timely and secure manner between countries, can significantly improve access to quality health services for people throughout the region.
We accompany the countries’ process and we are underway, now, let’s get to work!
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