Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
Side Event to the 71st World Health Assembly "Creating a digital Health Dynamic for Universal Health Coverage 2030"
22 May 2018, Geneva
The Commonwealth of Nations and United Nations Perspectives: Bridging the Health and Technology Sectors with the Global Goals
Good afternoon. Let me add my congratulations to the Commonwealth Medical Association on the setting up of the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health. Thank you for the invitation to join you today and I look forward to a fruitful collaboration between the Centre and ITU.
As the lead UN agency for ICTs, much of ITU's work relates to the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Without ICTs it will be impossible to achieve any of the 17 SDGs, including of course SDG3: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. For example target 3.6: By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents. This will clearly rely on ICTs for better road traffic management, collision avoidance systems and autonomous vehicles. ITU is working closely with UNECE on the international standards in this area. But we can only do this in close collaboration with the automotive industry, transport ministries and regulators.
The Centre's mission to bring new technologies to everyone, including the poorest and the most vulnerable amongst us, will require similar levels of collaboration between many different players. With ITU's diverse membership of 193 governments, around 700 private sector companies, 150 universities and a number of other regional and international organizations, ITU is well placed to help bringing together the technology sector together with the health sector to address this goal.
Connecting the unconnected is ITU's primary goal. Today there are still 3.9 billion people not connected to the internet, most living in rural areas. But providing these people with connectivity is not enough, we need to ensure that the services provided are what people want, at an affordable price and in their own language. Clealry heathcare is one of the vital services that people will want.
It is interesting to note that WHO estimates that at least half of the world's population lacks access to essential health services, and recognizes that ICTs can transform how and where healthcare is delivered. It is easy to deduce therefore that there is a correlation between the unconnected and the provision of health care, and the importance of connection to providing healthcare.
ITU and WHO have a long and rich history of cooperation which is increasing. Just last week, the Director-General of WHO was at ITU's second "AI for Good Global Summit" to remind us that digital technologies and artificial intelligence will be vital tools in achieving WHO's "triple billion" targets. One of results of the submit was for ITU and WHO to establish a study platform on "AI for Health", inviting private sector, academia and other interested parties to participate.
ITU has been in the business of developing common standards to ensure interoperability and interconnection for many years, as well as harmonizing the global use of spectrum and satellite orbits. This is essential if the equipment can operate anywhere at anytime and to reduce costs through economies of scale.
ITU has contributed to work on epidemics like Ebola, several mobile health initiatives like "Be Healthy, Be Mobile, developed standards to measure the impact of electromagnetic fields on human health, and works to help the aged and persons with disabilities through ICTs. ITU has helped a number of countries develop national eHealth strategies and has launched a project with WHO to scale up the use of mobile technology to deliver health messages.
ITU is at the forefront of today's digital revolution whether it be AI, Cloud computing, Blockchain, The internet of things, or 5G. If we are to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030, we need to transform this digital revolution into a development revolution and bring these innovations to all nations, all people and all segments of society.
We need to continue our efforts to promote and build stronger partnerships between Ministries of Health and Ministries of Information Technologies, particularly in the developing world and in low and middle income countries.
The Commonwealth is a compelling force for good in the world and an effective network for promoting development. ITU is active in a number of Commonwealth initiatives and organizations, in particular on cybersecurity and cybercrime, and I very much look forward to ITU collaborating with the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health to help leverage the power of ICTs to build sustainable health systems that can act as a common good for all.
Thank you.