Publish Date: December 2018
Author: MCSP and Partners
Too often digital health investments are made without the time or resources to develop a deep technical knowledge of the information and communications technologies behind them, or the ecosystem in which these technologies are used. The goal of the Digital Health Investment Review Tool is to provide high-level guidance based on widely-accepted best practices such as the Principles for Digital Development and the Donor Investment Principles that can be used to support strategic investments in the use of digital technologies to support public and global health.
The Digital Health Investment Review Tool includes (a):
Specific objectives include developing language and tools that can help:
- Structure requests for proposals (or other donor procurement mechanisms),
- Inform grants and contracts language, and
- Support informed advice / decision-making by procurement officers considering digital health proposals.
The primary audience for this tool is individuals involved with designing, creating proposals for, evaluating, and making purchasing decisions regarding the development of digital health systems. This spans a number of actor groups including:
- National governments, including health and IT ministries issuing calls for proposals for and/or reviewing potential digital health investments
- Regional bodies, such as those at the sub-regional or region-wide levels, who are making recommendations on and providing guidance on digital health investments
- Donors, who are funding or considering funding digital health activities
- Implementers, who may use the criteria to ensure they are putting forward sound proposals
The intent is for this work to be undertaken in an agile and iterative manner, with frequent focus groups and product testing with the intended users. The desired final products are intended to serve as global goods — tools that can be adapted and reused by a variety of audience segments for their own internal purposes.
