This tool has been designed to help guide environmental sustainability considerations during either planning or monitoring digital health systems. It is not a tickbox regulatory framework. It does not attempt to solve issues but it does highlight steps that can be taken.
Click on the buttons below to find out more about this tool.
Planning and Monitoring Tool for a Responsible and Sustainable Digital Health System (DHS)
Digitalisation of the health sector has huge potential to address unmet health needs. However, we must ensure that we digitalise in a way that minimises harm to the environment, otherwise human health could be adversely affected. This tool will propose some questions that you or the people collaborating with you (IT professionals, suppliers) should address in planning and managing a digital health system. The questions will explore the following areas:
- Considerations in procuring equipment and services to minimise environmental impacts
- Considerations around the management and processing of data to minimise environmental impacts
- Organisational approaches to minimising environmental impacts of ICT
- Ways to monitor and assess the current state and future progress of an environmentally sustainable Digital Health System
Along with exploring the more obvious technical and procedural considerations, the aim of this tool is to emphasise how prioritising data sufficiency and the mitigation of rebound effects are critical. Please click on the links to better understand these two concepts then click on the button below to start using this tool.