Digital Health Sans Borders

Geneva Declaration of Responsibility

Digital Health for Life

Geneva, Switzerland | May 19, 2025

Preamble

We, the global stakeholders in healthcare;

Recognize that health is a universal human right and digital technologies offer a transformative opportunity to advance this right for all;

Recognize that we have made commendable progress in the past decades yet, the persistent and growing digital divide excludes billions, especially in the developing world;

Recognize that interventions at an early stage can save lives and prevent the burden of catastrophic health spending;

Acknowledge the urgent need for global solidarity, ethical leadership and collaboration to ensure that Digital Health is Responsible, Responsive, Equitable, Inclusive, Secure, and Culturally Sensitive;

As global stakeholders, through this framework, we reaffirm our collective responsibility to create a Borderless Future for Digital Health, where geography, socio-economic status, language, culture, and infrastructure no longer limit a person's right to seek appropriate care, furthering the vision of the UN SDGs, the Global Digital Compact, Alma Ata and the Astana Declaration.

Our Responsibilities

Bridge the Digital Health Divide

We commit to advancing infrastructure, affordability, and literacy for Digital Health to ensure that every individual, regardless of who they are or where they live, can receive healthcare services through Digital Health.

Promote Equity & Inclusivity in Innovation

We commit to promote, and support in offering, co-developing and scaling innovative Digital Health interventions with a special emphasis on the needs of the marginalized & vulnerable populations, as well as rural, conflict-affected geographies, and for low-resource settings, starting with primary care.

Foster Global Collaboration

We pledge to collaborate and support the development of open standards, ethical data-sharing frameworks, interoperable cross-border digital public infrastructure, multilingual platforms, and real-time mapping of Digital Health implementation. Ensure transparent and evidence-based informed decision-making, safe cross-border, seamless, and secure healthcare delivery to those in need. We recognize that fostering collaboration across borders will improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and scale up adoption, and lead to healthier populations.

Build Trust and Accountability

We commit to transparency, participatory design, and robust clinical governance in all Digital Health efforts and initiatives. We commit to ensure data privacy, security, and algorithmic fairness as non-negotiable foundations of Digital Health initiatives.

Accelerate Knowledge Sharing and Support Science-Informed Policy and Practice

We pledge to ground Digital Health decisions and implementations in the best available evidence, not only by using but also by generating, documenting, and sharing robust data on implementation, effectiveness, and impact through open platforms. We commit to strengthening the global Digital Health Knowledge Commons, co-develop data-driven guidelines, support the rapid translation of research into policy and frontline practice, and leverage living evidence portals. Through collaborative policy dialogues and transparent reporting, we aim to ensure continuous learning, science-based decision-making, and the scalable adoption of Digital Health solutions that deliver quality healthcare.

Build Sustainable and Locally Anchored Ecosystems

We recognize that lasting impact requires local ownership, context-specific adaptation, and capacity building. We will prioritize initiatives that foster local leadership, promote skills development, and connect community and country-level Digital Health initiatives to the global ecosystem.

Act with Urgency

We recognize the time-bound nature of our mission to achieve 'Digital Health for All by 2030' with an overarching theme of 'Digital Health for Life', and we pledge to engage governments, civil society, healthcare professionals, healthcare workers, academia, industry, youth, healthcare users and caregivers as co-creators and stewards of this vision.

Call to Action

Multilateral organizations to prioritize Digital Health in development financing and Health Systems strengthening, and in creating an enabling framework for cross-border Digital Health;

Governments to embed Digital Health equity in national policies, regulations and programs;

Philanthropic and private sectors to prioritize and support inclusive innovation;

Civil society to advocate for the voices of underserved populations;

Academia, research institutions, and other stakeholders to collaborate, generate and share actionable evidence, best practices, and implementation guidance, leveraging open-access knowledge platforms and fostering communities of practice;

Clinicians, healthcare professionals and organizations to 'Volunteer' their time and 'Expertise' through digital platforms.

Signatories

Hittanshu, Tech Lead, DHA
Gaurav, AI Engineer, DHA
Chirag Patil, AI Engineer, DHA
Kaustubh, Product Engineer, DHA

Join the Movement

We share the vision and values and join the Digital Health Sans Borders movement by endorsing this declaration. We commit to building a borderless Digital Health ecosystem with compassion and collaboration.