Governance Models for Digital Health Transformation

Digital innovation is transforming health by reducing barriers to access, improving care quality, and making primary health care (PHC) systems more efficient. Governance is one of several key enablers in supporting successful digital transformations, impacting how decisions are made and financed, who holds authority, and how coordination occurs across sectors and levels of government. Digital governance is a broad topic covering many domains, reflecting the structures, policies, and processes used to regulate and coordinate the use of digital technologies for health. Countries with effective governance structures have both the necessary guardrails and essential accelerators to maximize the impact of their digital health investments. These governance models remain more important than ever with the introduction of AI into digital transformations.

This cross-country governance brief reflects insights from the Digital Health Exemplars (DHE) retrospective research, drawing on lessons from five countries—Brazil, Finland, Ghana, India, and Rwanda—that have successfully organized and evolved their institutional governance models in support of digitally transformed PHC systems. These countries represent a range of income levels, health system structures and digital ecosystem maturities, offering practical lessons that are relevant across diverse contexts.

This brief highlights the lessons Exemplar countries have learned about building functional digital health governance models: how to structure context-appropriate governing bodies, how governance structures can progress as digital health priorities and capabilities mature, and how these governance systems can be leveraged to support innovation, including the integration of AI into digital health. Policymakers, funders, and implementers can use these insights to shape strategy, guide investment decisions, and adapt proven approaches to their own contexts.

In addition to the DHE retrospective research, it is important to acknowledge the governance report developed by our research consortium partners – the World Bank and the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage as part of their Digital Health Learning Collaborative program.