11 September 2023
Seoul, Republic of Korea
The
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and
World Health Organization (WHO) jointly organized a workshop on “Future of Verifiable Health Credentials Beyond COVID-19” at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 11 September 2023. The workshop was kindly hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea.
The workshop was succeeded by the fifth meeting of the Joint Coordination Activity on Digital COVID-19 Certificates (JCA-DCC) which took place from 18:30 to 20:00 KST on the same day at the same venue. Remote participation was provided for the workshop. The workshop was held in English only.
Recently, the WHO announced the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) which began on 30 January 2020. It is, however, still critical to ensure global preparedness for future pandemics and ensure appropriate digital systems and specifications are in place. Verifiable health credentials can aid in pandemic preparedness as they provide a secure and efficient way to authenticate and share individuals' health information, such as vaccination status or test results, facilitating effective disease management and mitigating the spread of infectious diseases. There are ongoing discussions aiming to update the International Health Regulations (IHRs) to facilitate exchange of digitized versions of the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP), representing an example of a verifiable health credential.
Digital COVID-19 certificates have been implemented worldwide based on either the public key infrastructure (PKI) or on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). They were a means to provide proof of vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate safe travel and curb further spread of the virus. Challenges, however, still persist in achieving global interoperability between the different implementations of digital COVID-19 certificates. There is a need to establish interoperability frameworks to ensure seamless verification and acceptance across borders.
Looking beyond COVID-19, there are opportunities to expand verifiable health credentials to cover other diseases, such as yellow fever or Monkeypox. Leveraging the lessons learned from digital COVID-19 certificates, a global trust framework for future verifiable health credentials that enhances healthcare efficiency and enables secure sharing of health information while respecting privacy could be envisioned.
Objectives:
The workshop was held in the context of PP-22 Resolution 215 “Role of telecommunications/ICTs in mitigating global pandemics”. Its objectives included, but are not limited to:
- giving an overview on underlying technologies for implementing future Verifiable Health Credentials learning from the Digital COVID-19 Certificate;
- understanding the current regulatory/governance frameworks and implementations of Digital COVID-19 certificate by countries and regions;
- identifying the shape of future Verifiable Health Credentials learning from the Digital COVID-19 Certificate;
- understanding how to build a trust framework to ensure interoperability of Verifiable Health Credentials issued globally;
- sharing on-going standardization activities on Verifiable Health Credentials including the Digital COVID-19 Certificate among relevant ITU-T study groups and other organizations;
- identifying ways forward including recommendations for ITU-T Study Groups and WHO to undertake in this area; and
- providing recommendations or advice related to Verifiable Health Credentials on the future of JCA-DCC.
Participation in the workshop was open to ITU Member States, Sector Members, Associates and Academic Institutions and to any individual from a country that is a member of ITU who wishes to contribute to the work. Participation was free of charge and open to all. No fellowship was granted for the workshop.
Watch recordings of the sesssions here:
