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Digital Square is a digital health marketplace–or ‘square’–where supply and demand come together to accelerate health equity. We do this by: (1) aligning investors and government bodies around a shared digital health vision based on country needs and priorities; (2) promoting the development, adoption, and reuse of digital public goods for health; and (3) working with regional and country bodies to strengthen national-level digital health governance to support country digital transformation.
Digital Square plays a unique role in the digital health ecosystem, leading as a neutral convenor of donors, government leaders, technical innovators, and entrepreneurs. We advocate for and support global goods, promote open standards and open architecture in health systems design, strengthen regional and national capacity, and support local ownership and decision-making to facilitate the long-term sustainability of digital health solutions.
Since Digital Square launched in 2016, we have partnered with hundreds of stakeholders in local communities across 33 countries to improve how the global community designs, uses, and pays for digital health tools and approaches. Through our Open Application Process, we have approved and supported 36 mature global goods which are accelerating the speed and scale of digital health interventions, growing a dynamic community of technologists who come together to advance digital health solutions.
For more information about Digital Square, visit digitalsquare.org.
Digital Square defines global goods as digital health tools that are adaptable to different countries and contexts to help address key health system challenges. Global goods can take several shapes and forms, often work in conjunction with other global goods, and can fulfill many of the technology needs of a health system. Some of these characteristics are drawn from the Principles for Digital Development.
The advancement of global goods is crucial for saving lives and improving health around the world because these free and open source digital health tools can be used across different countries and health program verticals, cutting down on fragmentation and duplication to accelerate scale and health impact. For example, a global good used for HIV case management can also be used to manage care for malaria or tuberculosis.
A software tool that is free, open source, and used to manage, analyze, or transmit health-related data, with proven utility in several settings.
A software as a service tool that is used to manage, transmit, or analyze health-related data. This type of tool can be freely accessed and adheres to open data principles.
A resource, toolkit, or data standard that is available under an open license and that is used to improve or analyze the capabilities required to manage health data.
Since global goods are open source tools, there are multiple benefits to their use:
Historically, Digital Square has run specific Notices to identify global goods, the most recent being Notice G0 for software global goods in 2022 and G1 for content global goods in 2023. Since the beginning of 2024, applicants interested in submitting their digital health tool for consideration as a global good are able to do so at any time using our application portal, and applications are reviewed on a quarterly basis.
To be considered a global good, the digital health tool must meet certain minimum requirements:
Applicants must fill out the relevant application form and complete a self-assessment using the Digital Square Maturity Model. If you have any questions, you reach out to the Digital Square team at [email protected]. The Peer Review Committee (PRC) reviews all applications and make recommendations. The Global Goods Review Board (GGRB) meets quarterly to consider the PRC’s recommendations and decide whether to accept, reject, or request additional information. All applicants will be notified of the GGRB’s decisions. Successful applicants will be added to the Global Goods Interactive Guidebook and will be publicized through our communication channels.
Digital Square defines product suites as a configuration of open-source technologies and tools that are aligned to meet a functional health domain (such as telemedicine services, primary care,
immunization, antenatal care, neonatal care, etc.) and support standards-based data exchange. A product suite packages digital tools together and exchanges data through appropriate data exchange patterns to achieve a desired set of functionality and outcomes. Product suites may leverage international guidance documents, such as the WHO Digital Adaptation Kits (DAKs), to frame the expected system-wide workflows, features and functional areas. Product suites must:
The Digital Health Atlas is a WHO global technology registry platform aiming to strengthen the value and impact of digital health investments, improve coordination, and facilitate institutionalization and scale.
The Centre for Digital Health Interventions (CDHI) is a joint initiative with an interdisciplinary team of computer and social scientists partners with medical experts to design behavioural, scalable, and self-improving digital health interventions that are effective and cost-efficient.
The Digital Public Goods Alliance is a multi-stakeholder initiative to accelerate the attainment of the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income countries by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods.
The DIAL Impact Exchange enables digital change-makers to connect, collaborate, and exchange tools and best practices in the collective pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.
A Partnerships for Scale Programme designed to find, match, and connect ready-to-scale digital solutions with the urgent needs of UNDP Country Offices and governments in 170 countries.
In short, all global goods are digital public goods, but not all digital public goods are global goods.
A digital health intervention represents a discrete area of functionality of a technology to achieve health sector objectives. These interventions are intended for different users, including clients, healthcare providers, health system or resource managers, and those involved in data services.
Examples of digital health interventions include “Transmit targeted alerts and reminders to client(s)” and “Manage inventory and distribution of health commodities.”
Software solutions in digital health are not limited to clinical information systems. Rather, they can be tailored to the needs of different domains, or categories, within a health system—such as health information systems, supply chains, program monitoring and evaluation, disease surveillance, and health insurance.
Examples of software solutions designed for system categories and taken from Digital Square’s portfolio of global goods include: OpenLMIS, a logistics management information system (LMIS); and Bahmni, an open source electronic medical record (EMR).
