Call to action for responsible in digital health

This call to action draws its roots from the reflections and discussions that took place during the International Symposium: Responsible Innovation in Digital Health, Opportunities, Obstacles and Avenues held in January 2020 at the University of Montreal at the initiative of its Digital Health Consortium . These reflections and exchanges subsequently provided the opportunity for complementary exchanges within six groups of actors and actresses in the field of digital health. Throughout this process, the objective has been to identify concrete avenues of action likely to responsibly accelerate digital transformation in the health sector.

The discussions during the Symposium, and subsequently the discussion groups, made it possible to identify a series of avenues of action which cover three major areas of digital health: technologies and infrastructures, governance and public policies, as well as the participation of citizens and users in the innovation process. Thus, five priority avenues of action have been identified:

1. Modernization of IT tools and equipment

2. Training of professionals, workers and managers of the health system

3. Access and sharing of health data

4. Creating organizational conditions for a learning health system

5. Promoting the practices of citizens and clinicians as a basis for digital transformation

This call to action does not incorporate all the richness of the ideas and discussions that were expressed, either during the symposium or in the meetings of the expert groups. However, it transmits the main courses of action that have reached consensus and thus invites us to act together to accelerate the pace of transformation and become a responsible digital health model.