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WHO launches initiative for digital health wallets in Southeast Asia

2026/03/26 14:03
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The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research have teamed up with Singapore-based non-profit Temasek Foundation to launch a new three-year initiative to help Southeast Asian nations transition from paper-based health records to secure, interoperable digital wallets.

On March 23, the WHO, the United Nations agency dedicated to global health and safety, announced its new digital wallet initiative to help Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) assess readiness, plan deployment, and integrate new digital wallet functionalities into national health information systems.

The initiative is a partnership between the WHO, its Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research—an international partnership hosted by the WHO that works to improve public health in low and middle-income countries—and Temasek Foundation, a Singapore-based non-profit organization under the philanthropic initiative of Singapore’s state sovereign fund.

The project aims to assist ASEAN nations in moving from paper-based tools—such as the traditional “Yellow Card” or child health booklets—to digital wallets, to reduce administrative gaps, prevent the use of forged documents, and ensure that people’s records follow them across borders and between providers.

“Digital health wallets are more than a technological upgrade – they are a commitment to building trusted, people-centred health systems,” said Dr. Alain Labrique, Director of the Data, Digital Health, Analytics and AI Department at the WHO. “By supporting countries in adopting secure, interoperable solutions, we ensure that individuals can carry their essential health information with confidence and dignity.”

He added that “this partnership reflects our shared belief that digital transformation must strengthen national capacity, uphold equity, and provide the foundation for resilient health systems.”

The digital health wallets will use cryptographic verification via the WHO’s open-source platform, ‘Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN)’, to ensure records are secure, trustworthy, and interoperable. Countries will begin with digital International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis before expanding to routine immunization, maternal and child health records, and broader personal health summaries.

To ensure that data can move safely and consistently across systems, a key component of the initiative will be the adoption of global interoperability standards, including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which enables the electronic exchange of healthcare data between systems in the healthcare industry.

According to the WHO, the initiative was, in part, inspired by the COVID‑19 pandemic, “which demonstrated the urgency of reliable, verifiable digital health documentation.”

As noted by Kee Kirk Chuen, Head of Health and Well-being at Temasek Foundation: “The COVID-19 pandemic showed how important it is for health records to be trusted, verifiable and able to travel with people across borders.”

Through its partnership with the WHO, the Temasek Foundation said it hopes to support countries in moving from fragmented paper records to secure DHWs that users can carry with them wherever they go.

“By testing this approach in pilot ASEAN Member States we aim to demonstrate how trusted digital tools can strengthen health systems, improve continuity of care… and build the local capabilities needed for governments to scale these systems nationally,” Kee said. “If successful, this effort can help turn global digital health standards into practical solutions that benefit communities across the region.”

In its press release announcing the plan, the WHO suggested that, by the end of the program, the DHWs would have been piloted in each country and the results documented as a replicable model for the countries in the region.

The hope is that the initiative will also lead to global guidance to help other countries adopt secure, standards-based digital health wallets, “contributing to stronger, more resilient health systems across the region and beyond.”

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The WHO exploring innovation

Digital wallet technology isn’t the only innovation being explored by the WHO; the organization has placed particular emphasis over the past couple of years on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize global healthcare.

In April 2024, it rolled out a generative AI tool to provide global support for public health, known as the Smart AI Resource Assistant for Health (SARAH), an AI chatbot designed to provide users with information about diseases, prevention, and treatment, including providing information on leading killers such as cancers, diabetes, and heart conditions.

“The future of health is digital, and supporting countries to harness the power of digital technologies for health is a priority for WHO,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, at the time. “S.A.R.A.H. gives us a glimpse of how artificial intelligence could be used in the future to improve access to health information in a more interactive way.”

A couple of months later, the WHO doubled down on its AI supportive stance, saying in another statement published on Facebook (NASDAQ: META) that it “recognizes the potential of AI in enhancing health for all.”

More recently, in November of last year, the WHO announced it had partnered with the IndiaAI Mission—a federal government-supported program aimed at developing a strong AI ecosystem in the country—to invite abstracts showcasing scalable AI innovations for healthcare systems, with a particular focus on innovators from the Global South.

The international health body’s exploration of digital wallets marks its latest attempt to integrate innovative technology into its ongoing project to improve health access and outcomes in developing countries.

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Source: https://coingeek.com/who-launches-initiative-for-digital-health-wallets-in-southeast-asia/

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