Imagining a Lean and Agile Digital Health Ecosystem – a Measure of Pandemic Responsiveness

The COVID19 pandemic has laid bare stark inadequacies and disparities in health systems all over the world, particularly so in low/middle income countries [1]. Recent events highlight that strong political will and prior preparedness for health-related emergencies are critical to being able to think and act at the same time. A necessary requirement is rapid access to, and synthesis of, the right information. In a time of crisis, the question we are all asking ourselves is, how do we come together, leverage our strengths and resources to combat this enormous challenge? The other question we need to be asking ourselves is, how can our systems be set up to do the same? A digital health system that is smart, agile, performs early warning functions and is programmed to detect and inform on inequities in health care, can be a life-saving tool, especially in low resource settings.