New Global Initiative to Advance Digital and AI-Driven Transformation of Healthcare Systems

• Digital transformation and new tech tools can provide scalable solutions to systemic challenges straining global healthcare system, new research finds
• New World Economic Forum Digital Healthcare Transformation Initiative, launched in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group will accelerate public-private collaboration on digital health, data, and artificial intelligence
• New report by the World Economic Forum and BCG highlights how five critical enablers could revolutionize healthcare and counter the interconnected challenges it is facing globally

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland—A new World Economic Forum initiative, unveiled today, will unlock the transformative potential of digital tools and new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare, and the critical importance of concerted public-private collaboration in driving their global adoption.

The new initiative, launched in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), will harness the untapped power of digital solutions to help address the host of pressing interconnected challenges straining the global healthcare system. The joint effort will foster international collaboration on promising new digital tools such as AI to reshape patient care and improve system inefficiencies worldwide.

“Digital transformation has the potential to overcome the serious challenges patients and populations are facing worldwide,” said Shyam Bishen, Head of the Centre for Health and Healthcare, and Member of the Executive Committee at World Economic Forum. “Greater public-private collaboration is urgently needed to address these complex challenges. We are committed to providing an adaptable, cooperative platform to connect the dots and accelerate and scale up the innovative efforts of key change-making organizations in healthcare globally.”

Transforming Healthcare: Navigating Digital Health with a Value-Driven Approach, a joint report by the World Economic Forum and BCG, also launched today, underscores this urgent need for concerted collaboration on the scaling up of digital solutions to the triad of interconnected challenges straining health systems today: insufficient financial and human resources, the increasing burden of chronic diseases, and inequitable outcomes and access to care.

"This joint initiative marks a significant step towards harnessing the power of digital solutions and AI to elevate health outcomes, enhance efficiency, and bridge the gaps in access and care that exist in far too many countries,” said Torben Danger, global leader of BCG’s Health Care practice and a coauthor of the report. "Now is the moment for governments, health care system leads, and the private sector to intensify their efforts and establish the right conditions that not only allow digital, data, and AI solutions, but that enable them to thrive and transform global health care in an ethical and secure way."

The Transforming Healthcare: Navigating Digital Health with a Value-Driven Approach report’s strategic framework outlines five overarching digital enablers that could expedite the sustainable transformation of healthcare systems and help ensure maximum impact for patients worldwide:

• Data: Unlock the value of data which enables digital applications to create impact.
• Tech and analytics: Build a strong tech and analytics foundation that can extract value from data.
• Funding and incentives: Align incentives among stakeholders and ensure funding so digital can be scaled up for maximum impact.
• Hybrid healthcare delivery: Strengthen digital capabilities and user design to facilitate implementation.
• Regulations and policies: Develop fit-for-purpose digital regulations and policies.

Download the publication here.

Media Contacts:
World Economic Forum: public.affairs@weforum.org
BCG: Gregoire.Eric@bcg.com

About the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

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