The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights that the spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, bridge the digital divide, and develop knowledge societies.
Digital transformation of health care can be disruptive; however, technologies such as the Internet of Things, virtual care, remote monitoring, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain, smart wearables, platforms, tools enabling data exchange and storage, and tools enabling remote data capture and the exchange of data and sharing of relevant information across the health ecosystem creating a continuum of care have proven potential to enhance health outcomes by improving medical diagnosis, data-based treatment decisions, digital therapeutics, clinical trials, self-management of care and person-centered care as well as creating more evidence-based knowledge, skills and competence for professionals to support health care. Digital health should be an integral part of health priorities and benefit people in a way that is ethical, safe, secure, reliable, equitable, and sustainable. It should be developed with principles of transparency, accessibility, scalability, replicability, interoperability, privacy, security, and confidentiality.