Digital health tools boost traditional services but cannot replace them: WHO guidelines

The first international guidelines for prioritising, integrating and regulating digital health tools, released this week, underline the benefits of 10 digital approaches to improve public health and essential services but warn that technology cannot and should not replace traditional health services.

With 51% of the world’s population having access to broadband internet service, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines on digital interventions use evidence to identify how tools that use smartphones, tablets and computers can make health systems more efficient, responsive and resilient to resource constraints.