Outline thesis

The founding strategy paper, written Spring 2023. It sets out the problem, the ambition and the route.

This is a foundational document, written in Spring 2023. It is kept here as the record of the Forum's founding argument. The timeline near the end is measured from launch and should be read as the plan as it stood then.

Problem statement

The current state of digital health is affected by several challenges that reach patients, professionals and policymakers.

For patients and citizens

Limited access to health data, and limited transferability.
A shortage of preventive and proactive measures, arising from limited access to tools and data.
Current system designs jeopardise patient safety.
Low trust in service providers, which holds back the use of digital services and digital therapeutics.
The gender gap in health data, developments and treatments leads to inaccurate AI systems, and to misdiagnosis and under-diagnosis.

For professionals

A lack of uniformity in data acquisition, clinical calculations, guideline adoption and reporting.
An ineffective approach, which fails to deliver quality technology.
A lack of end-to-end integrity and of seamless cross-border use.
Inefficient resource planning and usage, causing staffing shortages and burnout.
Dissatisfaction with current technology, from complexity, lack of control and bureaucratic inefficiency.
Users are insufficiently considered as stakeholders.

For policymakers

Digital innovations benefit only a few rather than society as a whole.
Past investment has yet to produce sustainable innovation or meaningful outcome improvement.

Ambition

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 in the patient-professional interaction, and in building valuable new technologies that run seamlessly on top of that foundation.

Our activities foster alignment of all stakeholders, established organisations and methods, with policymakers and technologists, ultimately driving cultural change across the digital health sector.

We provide guidance, education and training. We refine governance, standards, business models, data schema, software guidelines and information organisation models. We propose a managed investment fund to accelerate their implementation.

To sustain the ecosystem economically and technologically, we nurture custodians: organisations that create and drive information management solutions for a community of stakeholders.

Thus we act as a caretaker, overseeing and guiding stakeholders in collaborative efforts to enable digital health.

Benefits of achieving the ambition

Patients, citizens and society: Innovations that benefit all individuals; citizens empowered and in control of their health; healthcare more efficient and more sustainable.
Health professionals: Solutions that reduce administrative burden and allow more time for patient interaction, with easy-to-use tools that improve the healthcare experience.
IT industry: A stable and reproducible framework with clear standards, reducing market variation and simplifying adoption.
Small and medium-sized enterprises: A more level playing field in an open market.
Insurers: Continuous, high-quality data streams for improving insurance policies.
Overall: Environmental, social and governance improvements, and progress toward digital responsibility goals.

Timeline as planned in 2023

Launch: The starting point for everything below.
At three months: Establish the initiative, inform the world through the website, seek input, identify collaboration candidates and secure resources.
At six months: Publish at least one guiding document, a landscape paper; onboard at least three custodian projects; secure the next round of funding.
At one year: Contribute actively to at least three custodian projects, publish at least ten guiding documents describing the concept's applicability in the EU context, achieve recognition from at least five standards organisations, and secure international support and donations.
At three years: Five custodians beginning to see positive outcomes, with a clear and effective governance structure and improved policies, guidelines and processes, supplied by an open and diversified value chain.
At ten years: Systemic and irreversible impact in the health information sector, with an established culture, modus operandi and incentives through adoption of the DHCF framework: citizens more in control, professionals more satisfied, the IT industry more standardised, and smaller enterprises enjoying a level playing field in an open market.

Call to action

Fund: Donations support the association's work and its goals, 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.

See get involved.