Digital Health Commons Forum

Innovation through
governance, collaboration
and openness.

A lightweight, independent, not-for-profit association, set up for the public common good and for digital sovereignty.


Our mission is to make the foundations of digital health as boring as the electricity grid or the postal service, so that it generally just works.

Efficiently, and with a great user experience. Then time and money can be invested where they belong: in the patient-professional interaction, and in building valuable new technologies that run seamlessly on top of that foundation.

Digital health is failing three groups at once.

Citizens
Limited access, limited transferability
and a gender gap in health data that produces inaccurate systems and missed diagnoses
Professionals
Administrative burden and burnout
from systems lacking uniformity in data acquisition, calculation and reporting
Policymakers
Investment without lasting outcomes
where digital innovations benefit only a few rather than society as a whole

Each of these has the same root. The foundations were built to serve institutions, and every layer above them inherits that shape.

What we do

We work on the layer everything else depends on.

Guidance and education

Guidance, education and training for the people who commission, build and govern digital health systems.

Governance and standards

We refine governance, standards, business models, data schema, software guidelines and information organisation models.

Custodians

We nurture custodians: organisations that create and drive information management solutions for a community of stakeholders, and sustain them over time.

Investment

We propose a managed investment fund to accelerate implementation, so that good foundations reach the people who need them.

A European public good

Aligned with open approaches in European policy.

The association is established under Luxembourg law and works across Europe and beyond. Its creations are available in the public domain, with an open licence, which is what makes fairness, sustainability and safety enforceable rather than aspirational.

The timing is favourable: mature digital technology, increasing pressure on health systems, and a pressing need for a viable alternative to the current market reality.

Who we are

A founding board with about 100 years of collective expertise.

Backgrounds in data governance, open technologies, research, health management, IT development, policy and implementation.

Bert Verdonck

Founding board

Jaana Sinipuro

Founding board

Stuart Mackintosh

Founding board

Three ways to take part.

Fund. Donations support the association's work, with all creations available in the public domain.

Endorse. Partners endorse the initiative, promote adoption, and drive improved health information landscapes.

Collaborate. Experts, practitioners, custodian organisations and pilot projects are invited to join the collaboration network.