mHealth for NCD - BeHe@lthy, BeMobile 2.0

About ICT Applications

Be He@lthy, Be Mobile (BHBM ) 2.0 is a joint project of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that harnesses emerging digital technologies to address the growing global burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

Representing the next phase of the WHO–ITU Be He@lthy, Be Mobile (BHBM) Global Joint Initiative , BHBM 2.0 builds on more than a decade of experience supporting countries in the use of digital technologies for NCD prevention and management. It evolves the original BHBM vision into an open, collaborative platform that enables countries to design, adapt, and scale AI-powered digital health solutions aligned with national priorities and WHO guidance.

The project aims to lower barriers to innovation, foster collaboration among countries and partners, and accelerate the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence for NCD prevention and management. By transforming proven knowledge, evidence, and technical expertise into a shared platform for innovation, BHBM 2.0 seeks to provide a more equitable, scalable, and sustainable pathway for the digital transformation of national health systems, improving the quality, accessibility, and resilience of health services.

Why BHBM 2.0?

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) remain the leading cause of death worldwide and continue to place an increasing burden on individuals, health systems, and economies. Despite the availability of proven interventions, many countries continue to face significant challenges in preventing and managing NCDs due to limited health workforce capacity, fragmented service delivery, inequitable access to care, and growing demand for long-term, person-centred health services.

BHBM has demonstrated that digital health interventions can expand access to health information, promote healthy behaviours, and support more people-centred health systems, particularly in underserved settings. The rapid evolution of Generative AI presents significant opportunities to enhance NCD prevention and management through AI-enabled tools such as conversational agents, behavior-change assistants, and personalized support services. This demonstrates the potential value of AI-powered applications—particularly those leveraging Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technologies—to deliver high-quality, context-specific information and guidance at scale.

WHO-ITU 2024 Global Digital Health Report has estimated that implementing evidence-based digital health interventions, including preventive health chatbots, could save more than 2 million lives globally and reduce healthcare costs by USD 199 billion over the next decade.

However, many institutions, especially in low- and middle-income countries, face substantial barriers to adopting such solutions. High development and licensing costs limited local technical expertise, restricted control over proprietary technologies, and the absence of interoperable standards all challenge the sustainability and long-term maintainability of AI systems.

The BHBM 2.0 aims to deliver a foundational and collaborative Digital Public Good (DPG) for NCDs that loweres the barries to entry for countries and healthcare institutions, enabling them to prototype, adapt, and test AI-powered solutions with minimal risk, cost, and technical overhead.

BHBM 2.0 Approach

Since its launch in 2012, the WHO–ITU Be He@lthy, Be Mobile (BHBM) Global Joint Initiative has supported countries in using digital technologies to strengthen the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). By combining evidence-based health content, national partnerships, and digital innovation, BHBM has demonstrated that digital health interventions can expand access to health information, promote healthy behaviours, and support more people-centred health systems, particularly in underserved settings.

Building on this foundation, BHBM 2.0 will develop, operationalize, and make globally available an open platform-as-a-service that enables countries to design, prototype, and pilot AI- and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)-enabled digital health chatbots and assistants for NCD prevention and management, as well as broader digital health applications. Built on WHO’s evidence-based BHBM content and ITU’s expertise in digital infrastructure, the platform will provide a secure, open, interoperable cloud-based sandbox where institutions can experiment with customizable software modules, curated WHO knowledge packages, reference RAG pipelines, and deployment templates.

As a DPG, the platform will provide a neutral, modular, and standards-based foundation that enables governments and institutions to retain full ownership of their data, maintain operational independence, and adapt solutions to their national priorities while avoiding vendor lock-in.

The platform will be accompanied by a comprehensive package of WHO-curated content, implementation guidance, technical documentation, capacity-building resources, and best practices to enable countries to confidently design, adapt, deploy, and sustainably scale AI-powered digital health solutions. Through pilot implementations and continuous learning, countries will be able to tailor solutions to local contexts while benefiting from a growing body of shared knowledge, reusable components, and implementation experience.

In parallel, the project will engage with governments, technical partners, academia, civil society, and the global digital health community to foster an enabling ecosystem for collaborative innovation, interoperability, open standards, and responsible AI in health. By encouraging co-development, knowledge exchange, and the reuse of digital public goods, BHBM 2.0 aims to accelerate the safe, equitable, and sustainable adoption of AI-powered digital health solutions worldwide.

BHBM Initiative and It's Impact

Find out about highlights and recent results Be He@lthy, Be Mobile has achieved as initiative and at the country level. MoRE...

BHBM Publications

Browse a selection of featured articles, info material, reports and media coverage about Be He@lthy, Be Mobile. MORe...

BHBM Handbooks

Central tool are our mHealth handbooks, which present all relevant information to implement and scale mHealth for NCD initiatives in form of plug-and-play, ready to use options. MORE...

Innovation and Initiatives

Learn more about select Be He@lthy, Be Mobile related technical and project innovations, such as the EU Innovation & Knowledge Hub, which is based on learnings from our initiative. MORe...

Who We Work With

We work with select organizations who share the vision that digital can help protect people from NCDs, to engage in multisectoral partnerships at national & global level. MORe...

BHBM Contribution to DPI

BHBM supports building connected digital health systems. It promotes open, scalable solutions integrated nationally. This drives sustainable, effective health services. MORE...

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