‘Infrastructure work for digital health should be carried forward immediately’

The e-health roadmap prepared and implemented by the Ministry of Health and Population on July 4, 2076 has given an opportunity to celebrate Digital Health Day today. In this regard, I would like to thank everyone who prepared the roadmap for the implementation of e-Health Strategy 2074 and so on.

We have seen social and economic transformation through the highest and correct use of technology. Information technology, which started with the use of computers in the census in Nepal in the year 2028, has reached every home and hand to hand today.

About 73 percent of the households have at least one smart mobile phone, half of the households have a television and 38 percent of the households have access to the Internet, according to the 2021 census.

Similarly, the fact that 55 percent of health institutions have computers with internet, it seems that information and communication technology is developing rapidly in the health sector.

We have taken the responsibility of providing universal access to quality healthcare and it is our policy to adopt all kinds of measures and technologies to achieve this.

Adopting the concept of e-health given by the World Health Organization for the use of information technology in the health sector, we have reached the stage of digital health implementation in its expanded form.

We have taken digital health as a tool to increase the professional capacity of health workers by increasing and modernizing the managerial capacity of the health sector, making the health service economical, easily accessible and quality.

In a situation where there is no option to join the global competition of information technology, it has become necessary for us to develop the capacity of our human resources and make health service management technology-friendly.

It is my request to make a work list in areas such as health information system strengthening, telemedicine and other health services with digital technology, mass communication and health education, emergency health, human resource management, health insurance and gradually increase the scope of use of information technology.

I believe that technology-based health services will also address issues such as the lack of specialist manpower in health services, the time it takes to receive health services, cost and labor reduction. Increasing public trust towards digital services is also a future challenge.

In the development and expansion of digital health, I urge you to immediately proceed with the government arrangements such as laws, rules, guidelines, the creation and implementation of its standards, the establishment of inter-agency cooperation and coordination mechanisms, appropriate institutional structures at all levels, mixed knowledge manpower, health infrastructure that matches digital health, and the assurance of resources.

(Speech delivered by Health and Population Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet on the occasion of the first Digital Health Day)

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