A World Economic Forum (WEF) initiative, unveiled this month, aims to unlock the transformative potential of digital tools and technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare.

And it aims to promote the critical importance of concerted public-private collaboration in driving global adoption of these technologies.

The initiative, launched in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), aims to harness the untapped power of digital technology to address the host of pressing interconnected challenges straining the global healthcare system. The joint effort will foster international collaboration on promising digital tools such as AI to reshape patient care and improve system inefficiencies worldwide.

“Digital transformation has the potential to overcome the serious challenges patients and populations are facing worldwide,” said Shyam Bishen, member of the WEF’s executive committee. “Greater public-private collaboration is urgently needed to address these complex challenges. We are committed to providing an adaptable, cooperative platform to connect the dots and accelerate and scale up the innovative efforts of key change-making organisations in healthcare globally.”

Transforming Healthcare: Navigating Digital Health with a Value-Driven Approach (www.weforum.org/publications/transforming-healthcare-navigating-digital-health-with-a-value-driven-approach), a joint report by the WEF and BCG, also launched this month, underscores this urgent need for concerted collaboration on the scaling up of digital technology to the triad of interconnected difficulties straining health systems, such as insufficient financial and human resources, the increasing burden of chronic diseases, and inequitable outcomes and access to care.

“This joint initiative marks a significant step towards harnessing the power of digital solutions and AI to elevate health outcomes, enhance efficiency, and bridge the gaps in access and care that exist in far too many countries,” said Torben Danger, global leader of BCG’s healthcare practice. “Now is the moment for governments, healthcare system leads and the private sector to intensify their efforts and establish the right conditions that not only allow digital, data and AI, but that enable them to thrive and transform global healthcare in an ethical and secure way.”

The report’s framework outlines five overarching digital enablers that could expedite the sustainable transformation of healthcare systems and help ensure better impact for patients worldwide:

• Data: Unlock the value of data which enable digital applications to create impact.
• Tech and analytics: Build a strong tech and analytics foundation that can extract value from data.
• Funding and incentives: Align incentives among stakeholders and ensure funding so digital can be scaled up for more impact.
• Hybrid healthcare delivery: Strengthen digital capabilities and user design to facilitate implementation.
• Regulations and policies: Develop fit-for-purpose digital regulations and policies.

BCG (www.bcg.com) was a pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, it works closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting stakeholders.