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The article provides a roadmap for the implementation of digital health policy by stakeholders to prepare for and address current and future pandemics. Based on the themes proposed in the article, which theme(s) do you think that your country still lacks or needs improvement to strengthen the preparedness in your country.
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Here are top 3 themes I think Myanmar still needs improvement in order of importance.
1. Technology (Theme 3)
Myanmar still faces gaps in digital infrastructure and data interoperability. Majority of health facilities still rely on paper-based systems, with limited Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption. Fragmented data systems between public, private, and community health services lead to slow and incomplete surveillance. Limited use of real-time data analytics and digital decision-support tools hampers quick outbreak response. We need to invest in health information systems and training on digital tools for health workers.2. Techquity (Theme 4)
The digital divide remains wide, particularly between urban and rural areas. Internet connectivity and access are limited in remote regions. Low digital literacy among health workers and the public, especially in older population limits the use of telemedicine and digital reporting tools. It is required to expand rural connectivity, offer digital skills training, and promote inclusive access to health technologies (e.g., via mobile networks and community health centers).3. Team (Theme 1)
There is limited integration between government ministries, private sector, and community organizations in pandemic preparedness. Collaboration between Ministry of Health and IT institutions remains underdeveloped. We have to setup multi-sectoral “health data teams” including policymakers, community leaders, and private tech partners to coordinate data sharing and communication during outbreaks. -
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Based on the themes proposed in the article, I think all five themes still need improvement to strengthen emergency preparedness in my country, Myanmar.
Theme 1. Team:
The country should build strong, multi-sectoral teams that connect ministries, local authorities, academia, private sectors, and local communities. Limited collaboration and fragmented data flow during emergencies weaken national response capacity. Clear roles, shared data systems, and community participation can enhance preparedness.
Theme 2. Transparency and Trust:
A transparent approach to data collection and use is essential. The country needs clear data governance, ethical standards, and communication strategies to ensure that the public trust digital tools and government responses. Trust is crucial in emergency situations when misinformation spreads quickly.
Theme 3. Technology:
Outdated systems and low interoperability hinder timely data sharing. Investing in interoperable platforms, real-time surveillance tools, and training health workers in data literacy can help the country prepare and respond faster to health emergencies.
Theme 4. Techquity:
Access to digital health tools varies widely across my country, especially in rural and conflict-affected areas. Expanding internet connectivity, affordable mobile services, and digital literacy programs will ensure that all regions benefit from digital health innovations.
Theme 5. Transformation:
Digital transformation should be seen as a long-term investment, not just an emergency measure. Integrating digital health into the country’s health policies can create resilient systems that support prevention, early detection, and coordinated response in future health emergencies. -
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Based on the 5 themes proposed in the article: team, transparency and trust, technology, techquity and transformation, Myanmar still faces major gaps, particularly in technology, techquity and transparency and trust.
Theme2 Transparency and Trust:
Public trust in data use and digital health initiatives remains low due to limited transparency, unclear data privacy regulations and misinformation on social media. Building trust through clear communication, public engagement and transparent data governance will help improve compliance and cooperation in future health emergencies.Theme3 Technology:
Myanmar’s health information systems remain largely paper-based, with limited interoperability and data-sharing capacity between hospitals, ministries, and laboratories. During COVID-19, the lack of real-time data, weak digital surveillance and poor integration of electronic health records made it difficult to track cases or distribute vaccines efficiently. Strengthening technological infrastructure such as cloud-based systems, interoperable data platforms, and digital surveillance tools is essential for better preparedness.Theme4 Techquity:
Digital health access is uneven across the country, especially in rural and conflict-affected areas where internet connectivity and digital literacy are limited. Many people still lack access to smartphones, affordable data plans, and online health information. This digital divide prevents equal participation in telemedicine and digital vaccination programs. Improving connectivity, affordability, and digital literacy is key to ensuring inclusive preparedness. -
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Hi everyone,
From this article, there are five key themes (Team; Transparency & Trust; Technology; Techquity; Transformation) for implementing digital health in pandemic preparedness. In my opinion, Thailand has strong areas in Technology to integrate digital tools and surveillance, and Team to cooperate with multiple levels of stakeholders.
Two themes appear to present gaps: Transparency & Trust, and Techquity. I’ll detail why for each.Transparency & Trust
While Thailand has enacted key legislation (e.g., personal data protection, cybersecurity laws), and is working on frameworks for data management and sharing. However, the trust aspect, such as how citizens feel about data use, how transparent the governance is, seems less prominent in the sources. For a pandemic-preparedness system, unless people trust that their data are used appropriately, uptake of digital health tools may lag. Strengthening the governance, communication, and citizen-engagement components of digital health systems should be improved to build stronger trust and transparency.Techquity
While Thailand has telemedicine and remote-care initiatives to improve access, concerns about the fragmentation of digital systems and ensuring inclusive access remain. Workforce digital literacy and capacity building across all health-care, public-health, and community settings are highlighted as needing more investment to ensure that digital health tools are equitably accessible and usable by all parts of the population. -
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After reading “The Evolution of Public Health Emergency Management” (Rose et al., 2017), I think Thailand has made progress in digital health development, especially in disease surveillance and communication systems. However, there are still areas that need improvement to strengthen our preparedness for future pandemics.
One theme that still needs more attention is the integration of information systems and data sharing across different sectors. The article emphasized the importance of information collection, integration, and sharing as a key domain of public health emergency management. In Thailand, health data often remain fragmented between hospitals, laboratories, and public health agencies, which can delay timely decision-making during emergencies. Improving this interoperability through standardized digital platforms and real-time data exchange would make our response faster and more coordinated.
Another area that could be strengthened is training and evaluation. Rose et al. (2017) mentioned that building staff competencies and continuously evaluating emergency management systems are essential. Although Thailand conducts simulation exercises, more consistent training programs that combine digital tools and field response could improve readiness, especially at the local level.
Overall, enhancing digital integration, capacity building, and evidence-based evaluation would help Thailand align better with international standards and be more resilient in future health crises. 😃
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Based on Al Knawy et al. (2022), the five themes for strong digital health systems are team, transparency and trust, technology, techquity, and transformation. In my country, Myanmar, some progress has been made, but several areas still need improvement:
Team: There is weak coordination among ministries, NGOs, and ethnic health organizations. Health workers also need more training in digital tools and data use.
Transparency and trust: Myanmar lacks clear data protection laws. People have low trust in how health data are collected and shared.
Technology: Many rural areas have poor internet and limited electronic systems, making it hard to collect and share health information quickly.
Techquity: There is a big digital gap between urban and rural areas. Some communities have little access to mobile or online health services.
Transformation: Digital health activities are small and scattered. There is no strong national digital health strategy linked to pandemic preparedness. -
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The roadmap is structured with five core themes: 1) Team, 2) Transparency and Trust, 3) Technology, 4) Techquity, and 5)Transformation. Based on the articles, the five core themes are prescribed with the following perspective.
1) Team
Collaboration between stakeholders in health teams should be prioritized during pandemics and should promote the flow of data to improve population health.
2) Transparency and Trust
Timely data and information are necessary to address a pandemic, and digital health approaches must preserve rights to privacy and consent.
3) Technology
Public health systems should use the necessary technology to create and share health intelligence, collecting and using high-quality data in a timely fashion.
4) Techquity
Act to decrease inequities in digital health capability and access at individual, local, national, regional, and global levels, while embracing digital inclusion.
5) Transformation
Digital health should enable and empower people, and health care systems, to prevent and treat communicable diseases; sustain wellness; and prevent pandemics.
In Myanmar, According to my own perspective; It is needed to improve especially techquity and transformation themes rather than above three themes. In our system, digital heath record is not widely used in the hospital. Patient are used paper medical record and interoperability is not working well from hospital to another hospital. In the term of emergency, digital health system is main aspect to conduct effective intervention.
The second one that need to strengthen is transformation. Digital health system should encourage and widely used as nationally. It can be conducted by integrating technologies like EHRs, clinical decision support, and patient management systems into existing health system. -
I think the Philippines still need to improve on all the five themes. However, I think the one that is most relevant today is about Transparency and Trust (Theme 2). The controversy surrounding the alleged corruption on flood control projects worth billions of pesos have been on the headlines for weeks now, with private contractors and government officials under investigation. Although the main agency involved is the Department of Public Health and Highways (DPWH) and not the Department of Health, I think this controversy affects the public’s trust on the government as a whole. We have to put extra effort in getting the public to trust the digital health care tools and systems that we are going to use, and ensure them that their health data are secured and kept private. Transparency is also very important, so people will be assured that their taxes are being used on real digital health projects, not “ghost” projects.
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Team: For this theme, our country needs improvement in joint planning and action among different stakeholders. Due to underreporting and difficulty in rapport building among sectors, we must put many efforts to collaborate under same goal.
For transparency and trust, as mentioned above, there is still dilemma to give health data is safe or not when there is political consideration among decision makers. We, health professionals are trying to reduce this barrier in establishing digital health in our country.
For our country, the technology is under improving condition but there is still lack of techquity theme. We have various professionals for applying technology and supports from international organizations in implementing digital health system. But investment in technological infrastructures is very low especially in grass root level and many restrictions to use in some regions of country.
Our country is trying to implement digital health transformation, starting from the ministry of health. But the community still lack capacities and digital literacy to use the digital tools for their health. After facing COVID 19 pandemic, most urban population get awareness about telehealth and mhealth. -
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I think the following themes are areas where Myanmar still needs to strengthen pandemic preparedness:
1. Team (Theme 1) – Collaboration among stakeholders needs to be enhanced in Myanmar.
2. Technology (Theme 3) – Public health systems need to strengthen to create and share health intelligence and to collect and use high-quality data.
3. Techquity (Theme 4) – Equitable access to digital health capability and access at the individual, local, national, regional, and global levels should be strengthened in Myanmar.
4. Transformation (Theme 5) – Digital health should transform individual and population health, and every stakeholder needs to accept change management.
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The implementation of digital health has been very limited in our country. There have been instances of trying to develop digital health but due to the coup, most of them are currently static.
Most of the private hospitals start using EMR, but the systems are siloed with lack of interoperability among them.
These are the areas needed to improve and strengthen for preparedness of pandemics in our country-
Team – Team of various stakeholders (including community) should be formed to follow agreed on procedures and policies for digital health, ensuring every party is on the same page.
Collaboration and coordination platforms should be present for seamless information flow within country. Designated focal points for international communication of disease outbreaks.
Capacity building for digital literacy and data security should be given at regular intervals.
Transparency and trust – Adoption and acceptance of digital health by citizens needs transparency and trust. Empowering citizens with their data, including consideration of policies such as ‘The Right to be forgotten’. Ensure that the surveillance systems combine an effective public health response with respect for ethical and privacy principles. A clear separation between science and policy has to be made to build trust.
Technology- Leverage digital technologies to collect, analyze, utilize and share data for deeper insights for future health preparedness and interventions.
Techquity – Consider other dimensions of health (geographic, socio-economic status and education, etc) to mitigate digital inequities. These should be addressed through policy work, national investment for digital and technology access.
Transformation – As mentioned in the reading document, “Think locally and act globally” is an important aspect to consider for successful digital health transformation. We should adopt and customize technologies to be locally acceptable and to be globally interoperable to gain high return on investment.
All in all, for our country I think all five themes are needed to be developed or strengthened for future pandemics preparedness and response. -
Thailand needs to improve in:
– Techquity: Many people still have limited capacity to use digital tools, and this gap seems to be wider. It results in unequal participation in digital health programs.
– Transparency and trust: Fragmented data sharing and unclear data governance cause low confidence and trust among people. They are unsure how their personal data are collected and used, have no clear understanding of the protocols, and generally lack trust in the government.
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