WHO Collaborating Centre for Digital Health
The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Digital Health in the School of Population Health is a leading centre for digital health education, research and evaluation in digital health practice. The centre supports the WHO Western Pacific Region in selected programs in improving the uptake and utilisation of digital health interventions in the member countries.
Vision
The WHO Collaborating Centre on Digital Health aims to:
- Train and build capacity for digital health in member countries.
- Research, develop, and evaluate digital health interventions.
- Contribute towards and support countries to implement their digital health strategy.
The vision of our centre aligns with the WHO digital health strategy ‘to improve health for everyone, everywhere by accelerating the development and adoption of appropriate, accessible, affordable, scalable and sustainable person centric digital health solutions’.
Mission
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Digital Health provides academic and technical expertise and knowledge products (e.g., systematic reviews, technical papers) to:
- Inform decision-making on the implementation and evaluation of digital health interventions in health systems, organisations and communities, including providers and consumers of health care.
- Build capacity for and strengthen digital health principles, clinical practice, management and policy to support learning health organisations.
This will assist member countries to harness digital health to strengthen their health systems to achieve universal health coverage and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
People
Co-Director, WHO CC for Digital Health
Teng Liaw
Emeritus Professor of General Practice, UNSW
E: siaw@unsw.edu.au
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Co-Director, WHO CC for Digital Health
Rohina Joshi
Lead, Global Health Research
School of Population Health, UNSW
E: Rohina.joshi@unsw.edu.au
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Lead, Digital Health
Padmanesan Narasimhan
School of Population Health, UNSW
E: padmanesan@unsw.edu.au
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Lead – Asia Pacific Observatory
Adam Craig
School of Population Health, UNSW
E: adam.craig@unsw.edu.au
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Scientia PhD Scholar
Myron Godinho
School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
E: m.godinho@student.unsw.edu.au
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Post-Doctoral Researcher
Sameera Ansari
School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
E: sameera.ansari@unsw.edu.au
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Research Fellow
Jitendra Jonnagaddala
School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
E: jitendra.jonnagaddala@unsw.edu.au
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Research themes
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- ePBRN and analytics of linked datasets
- Common data model (CDM) and CDM-enabled data quality assessment and management.
- Using digital tools to improve civil registration and vital statistics in LMICs.
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Apps to support Individuals
- COPD
- Cardiac failure
Apps for communities
- Water security
- Climate
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- Education & Training in Digital Health;
- Systematic Review of digital health toolkits.
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- Developing a framework for social enterprises to use digital health and citizen engagement in co-creating integrated people-centred health services
- Frameworks and protocols to support secure and equitable access to health data for ethical clinical and secondary use;
- Integrated governance to ensure quality of data and care.
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Digital Health Course (PHCM9790)
Elective course in Digital Health for the Master program at the UNSW School of Population Health. This course aims to provide an understanding of the key approaches and principles underpinning digital health especially in integrating design, methodology and evaluation tools. The course focuses on an in-depth understanding of the evaluation of the digital health tools by investigating into areas such as governance, structure, ethics and confidentiality. There will also be an exploration of the theoretical principles in evaluation of digital health interventions in this course.
Webinars
Fellows / Interns / Students
Potential postgraduate research candidates, in the School of Population Health postgraduate are invited to submit expressions of interest to undertake research/internship at the WHO Collaborating Centre for digital health.
Toolkit - Improving ways of thinking and ways of doing (WoTWoD) Cultural Respect
Rationale: The majority (60%) of Aboriginal people live in urban Australia. Despite various strategies to “close the gap” in access to care and social services, health inequities and culturally inappropriate care persist. The WoTWoD program and the Toolkit aims to improve the delivery of clinically and culturally appropriate health care for Indigenous people who attend mainstream urban general practices.
The WoTWoD program and toolkit has been evaluated with a multicentre cluster RCT in Sydney and Melbourne in 2018. Outcome measures included cultural respect among general practice staff (measured by the Cultural Quotient), clinical care (measured as use of MBS Iitem #715) and cardiovascular risk factors (measured by practice records audit). Interviews of patients and practice staff conducted after 12 months to assess the feasibility, appropriateness, acceptability, and effectiveness of the WoTWoD. The WoTWoD improved all measures, but improvements did not reach statistical significance. The qualitative perceptions of the participants to the program and toolkit were incredibly positive.
The Toolkit is currently available for download. Alternatively, can download by using the following QR code. Please register and provide feedback so that the Toolkit can be improved over time and use in the field.
