WHO releases its first guidelines on digital health tools

The WHO just released its first guide for countries on how to use cellphones, computers, and other digital health technologies to improve people’s health. Among the 10 recommendations: use cellphones to update birth and death data in rural health settings and communicate information about appointments and infant care to expecting and new mothers through devices such as tablets. But the WHO also stresses that countries ought to take into account privacy concerns and the feasibility of more widely using digital tools. “Ultimately, digital technologies are not ends in themselves,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.