Global Agenda Council on Digital Health 2011

It is widely recognized that the health industry is a late adopter of information and communication technologies (ITC). The health industry has not fully realized the potential of such technologies for enabling better access, increasing productivity or for better care coordination. The transformative impact of ITC on health is not similar to the one it has had on other industries.

Health is a highly regulated industry and the product innovation cycle is generally 5-10 years as compared to a mere six months to a year in other industries. The long product innovation cycle and the regulatory hurdles have discouraged the IT and TC industries. The IT and TC industries primarily focus on capturing market share in the lucrative health space, leading to fierce competition, which often draws away attention from the real problems.

To address some of these issues, the World Economic Forum recently developed a Global Health Data Charter to enable the sharing of health data among various domains and foster the digital health era.