Digital Health Trust Networks

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a clear boost in the use of digital health tools and increased their visibility. For example, COVID-19 certificates have played a crucial role in reopening economies and facilitating travel. This experience and momentum create an excellent starting point to prepare for future health crises, but also to enable better use of digital tools for continuity of care and other purposes in the health domain.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched, in collaboration with the European Commission, the Global Digital Health Certification Network, a system for issuing and verifying health documents based on the EU’s digital COVID-19 certificate technology. This already operational and growing network may support further use cases in the future, such as the digitalization of WHO’s yellow booklet, routine immunization, and international exchange of patient summaries.