IGF 2022 DC-DDHT Community Connection to Ehealth, Telemedicine & MIoT

Session: IGF 2022 DC-DDHT Community Connection to Ehealth, Telemedicine & MIoT, presented by the United Nations Internet Governance Forum’s Dynamic Coalition on Data Driven Health Technologies.

The overall context of the session was based on the opportunities available for communities, from the international space to the village, to support each other in the development of ehealth systems. Fair and equitable internet access, is an opportunity to support a resilient ehealth service, so as to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3, Health and Well-being for All. The need for the support of “good samaritans” who may be a neighbor with internet skills, or a compassionate internet philanthropist, is sought, so as to enable this end goal. The session commenced with a status update on ehealth, followed by a discussion of issues pertinent for onboarding a broader group of users, to the medical internet of things. The DC DDHT onboarding to MIoT tool kit was launched, with an invitation for everyone to contribute to developing this online information tool. A general question and answer period followed. The session was moderate by Ms. Amali De Silva-Mitchell (DC Coordinator) online and Dr Amado Espinosa onsite.

Dr Joao Rocha Gomes reflected on the use of emerging technologies for ehealth and spoke about the role of patient self-monitoring (internet as a tool). There is the need to increase the active engagement from the patient (often through the use of the internet, for patient specific care) for this self-help activity, which will lead to the resilience and opportunities for greater capacity for the ehealth system. He spoke of the use of AI to screen and profile patients for treatment options, saving time at patient intake (more patients could be triaged), again increasing the capacity and efficiency of the ehealth system.  

Mr. Sean Dodge, Royal Bank of Canada RBC Capital Markets US, highlighted the tremendous growth in financial investment within the healthcare technology sector. He pointed out that non-traditional health care-based entities, such as a large consumer brand company, as well as a large database software technology company, were now investing in the space. He noted the changing behavioral profiles of patients, who were now rapidly seeking telemedicine options (40+%) that came into active use, during the covid pandemic, as their preferred engagement option with their healthcare provider.  

Mr. Gerry Ellis of Feel the BenefIT and Ms. Lidia Best, President European Federation of Hard of Hearing People (EFHOH) spoke of their work with the ITU / WHO working group, that in June 2022, set up a universal standard for enabling accessibility to the internet, for all persons with visible and invisible disabilities. An inclusive internet is an internet that is open for use by all peoples (diversity) of the world, in a fair and equitable manner. The medical internet of things MIoT, can only be effective if it has ehealth systems (including devices) that are compliant with universal accessibility standards. They also noted that disabled persons should be provided with additional time to navigate the internet based technology, such as by the extension of time-outs to web page access and so-forth.

The general discussion that ensued was active and was based on a broad set of topics. It was noted that the opportunity for conversations and information sharing amongst stakeholders is important for the development of ehealth eco-system. The full length utube recording of the session is available for viewing on the IGF 2022 website. The webpage with access to the DC online book and tool kit is available at: Dynamic Coalition on Data Driven Health Technologies (DC-DDHT) | Internet Governance Forum (intgovforum.org)

Reported by Ms. Amali De Silva-Mitchell, Coordinator UN IGF DC DDHT