Helping countries in developing an inclusive, sustainable, and equitable digitalized healthcare system: The Digital Public Health Maturity Index
1
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
2
Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Public Health, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
3
Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Section, European Public Health Association, Utrecht, Netherlands
4
Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS GmbH, Bremen, Germany
5
Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
6
Netherlands Institute for Health Service Research, Utrecht, Netherlands
7
Faculty of Health Sciences, Libertas International University, Zagreb, Croatia
8
University of Malta, Valletta, Malta
9
Ministry for Health and Active Ageing, Valletta, Malta
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A888
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Globally, countries aim to transform their healthcare systems into digital environments to address workforce shortages and an aging population. To evaluate this endeavour, various maturity assessment tools have been proposed (like the Global Digital Health Monitor). However, none of them can sufficiently measure the inclusiveness, sustainability, and equity of digitalization in health at the national level, nor the domains of public health beyond healthcare (such as surveillance or health promotion). To fill this gap, we developed the Digital Public Health (DiPH) Maturity Index. It consists of four overarching domains (Implementation of digital services in the health system, Information-Communication-Technology infrastructure, Policy, and Participation) and includes 150 indicators for a detailed assessment of a system’s maturity.
METHODS:
The index was developed based on a review of grey literature and one e-Delphi study to identify relevant indicators [1,2,3]. In the final stage, presented in this abstract, we conducted a global Delphi study and a multi-criteria decision analysis to establish an expert-informed weighting system across the index’s domains for a realistic assessment.
RESULTS:
Over 50 experts participated in our study. In a first round, they proposed 10 essential criteria for DiPH maturity assessment indicators (e.g., ease of data collection, timeliness, costs, feasibility, and ethical considerations of data collection, or data availability). In a second stage, they assigned each consented criterion a weight that summed to 100%. In the final round, experts sorted each domain and sub-domains according to the agreed criteria. The study team then calculated the overall scores for each domain and sub-domain.
CONCLUSIONS:
The project identified indicators for interdisciplinary assessment of the DiPH system maturity. This essential theoretical groundwork lays the foundation for evaluating the development of digitalization at the national level and provides countries with an open-access list of indicators to track the degree of digitalization in their healthcare systems.
Globally, countries aim to transform their healthcare systems into digital environments to address workforce shortages and an aging population. To evaluate this endeavour, various maturity assessment tools have been proposed (like the Global Digital Health Monitor). However, none of them can sufficiently measure the inclusiveness, sustainability, and equity of digitalization in health at the national level, nor the domains of public health beyond healthcare (such as surveillance or health promotion). To fill this gap, we developed the Digital Public Health (DiPH) Maturity Index. It consists of four overarching domains (Implementation of digital services in the health system, Information-Communication-Technology infrastructure, Policy, and Participation) and includes 150 indicators for a detailed assessment of a system’s maturity.
METHODS:
The index was developed based on a review of grey literature and one e-Delphi study to identify relevant indicators [1,2,3]. In the final stage, presented in this abstract, we conducted a global Delphi study and a multi-criteria decision analysis to establish an expert-informed weighting system across the index’s domains for a realistic assessment.
RESULTS:
Over 50 experts participated in our study. In a first round, they proposed 10 essential criteria for DiPH maturity assessment indicators (e.g., ease of data collection, timeliness, costs, feasibility, and ethical considerations of data collection, or data availability). In a second stage, they assigned each consented criterion a weight that summed to 100%. In the final round, experts sorted each domain and sub-domains according to the agreed criteria. The study team then calculated the overall scores for each domain and sub-domain.
CONCLUSIONS:
The project identified indicators for interdisciplinary assessment of the DiPH system maturity. This essential theoretical groundwork lays the foundation for evaluating the development of digitalization at the national level and provides countries with an open-access list of indicators to track the degree of digitalization in their healthcare systems.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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