Regional collaborative initiatives are designed to accelerate digital health adoption, aligning public and private efforts to address critical gaps and scale impactful solutions in a particular region. With input from the community, the Forum identified key components essential for building effective collaborative initiatives: Regional maturity awareness Recognizing and addressing differences in regional maturity is crucial for driving impactful outcomes. Markets can be categorized into three stages – emerging, standardizing and innovating, each reflecting distinct levels of awareness, mobilization and trust in health data. This categorization helps tailor strategies to regional needs, ensuring progress at every stage of development. –Emerging. Characterized by promising but still- developing initiatives in areas with limited digital public infrastructure (DPI), these demonstrate a need for enhanced engagement and a coherent strategy. The focus is on developing awareness and encouraging leadership commitment to integrate health data more effectively into public and private healthcare frameworks while also strengthening infrastructural foundations. –Standardizing. There is already a defined vision for health data transformation supported by consolidated initiatives and substantial leadership engagement. Efforts are aimed at scaling these initiatives and enhancing interoperability between systems to streamline health data usage as a core component of healthcare innovation. –Innovating. Health data is treated as a strategic asset, fully integrated into healthcare systems with robust data governance structures. The focus in these markets is on expanding the reach and depth of data-driven innovations and promoting a secure environment for data sharing across borders. Stakeholder selection and engagement To build a health data collaboration network, it is vital to involve stakeholders from both the public and private sectors who bring complementary expertise, infrastructure and incentives. The types of organization listed in Table 1 should be included in the initial cohort. 3.3 Components for implementation Stakeholders to be involved in a health data collaboration network TABLE 1 Public-sector participants Private-sector involvement –Health ministries, government departments and regulators overseeing data infrastructure and governance –National and global health agencies (e.g. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, EU health authorities) –Public hospitals and research institutions –Other stakeholders providing policy guidance and funding and ensuring compliance with privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) –Healthcare providers and private hospitals sharing clinical data to improve care and efficiency –Pharmaceutical companies contributing real-world data for drug development –Health insurers providing actuarial data to promote preventive care models –Technology companies offering infrastructure for data exchange –Healthtech start-ups and digital health companies driving innovation through new data-powered applications and services Better Together: Building a Global Health Network Economy through Data Collaboration 13

Better Together 2025