Four pillars shaped closing discussions
Plenary sessions on the final day coalesced around four pillars: person-centric digital health systems, sustainable financing models, governance for digital and AI-enabled health, and mechanisms for regional collaboration. Experts emphasised that interoperability, legal reform and inclusive implementation strategies are prerequisites for any digital health gains to be durable.
Person-centric systems and UNICEF’s role
UNICEF led a session on person-centred digital health systems that brought together leaders from India, Sri Lanka and the broader Asia-Pacific. Speakers articulated a shared vision for interoperable, intelligent systems that prioritise continuity of care, data portability and protection of patient rights — not merely data collection.
State case study: Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh was presented as a case study for integration with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). Delegates highlighted practical gains from Scan & Share adoption and building citizen health records, underlining that scalable national building blocks can accelerate uptake across varied health systems.
Sustainable financing: an urgent imperative
Shrinking fiscal space and rising health costs framed discussions on financing. Delegates from India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand and Timor-Leste mapped shared challenges: fragmented funding, donor dependence and lack of long-term budgets. Panelists recommended blended models — combining public budgets, pooled regional funds, PPPs and insurance-linked instruments — to secure digital health as public infrastructure.
Legal and governance reforms for stability
Experts called for legal reforms including data protection, digital health acts and procurement modernisation to establish investor and client confidence. Speakers argued governance clarity is key to attracting sustained investment and to deploying AI safely in clinical and public health contexts.
SEA-DAC: a member-state led collaboration
A landmark proposal at RODHS was the SEA-DAC concept — a member-state led network for continuous regional collaboration on standards, FHIR interoperability and policy exchange. Representatives welcomed the idea, noting it would help harmonise technical approaches, share lessons and speed adoption without imposing uniformity on countries at different maturity levels.
Reimagining AI governance
Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MeitY and CEO of IndiaAI Mission, delivered a keynote calling for a safe, inclusive AI governance model built through partnerships between governments, technologists, WHO, academia and civil society. He urged countries to pursue AI that augments health workers and preserves patient rights.
Voices from WHO and UNICEF
Dr Karthik Adapa (WHO-SEARO) clarified the distinction between integration and interoperability, listing infrastructure, DPI, applications, governance and capacity building as core components of resilient digital health systems. Meredith Dyson (UNICEF) reiterated that technology without people-centric design and equity will not deliver outcomes.
Practical steps and next-stage priorities
Delegates recommended concrete next steps: harmonise FHIR implementations, develop shared testbeds, adopt SMART guidelines, strengthen regional pooled financing mechanisms and invest in workforce capacity for digital governance. They urged countries to embed digital health in national budgets and to pursue incremental, evidence-driven deployment.
The summit closed with a unified message: digital health transformation is a long-term systems journey that requires standards, governance, sustained finance and inclusive regional collaboration. RODHS 2025 positioned South-East Asia to move from pilots to interoperable, people-centred digital public health infrastructure.
For the official release and summit agenda, see the Press Information Bureau and the Regional Open Digital Health Summit portal.
