A conversation on the future of the World Health Organization, rethinking how we approach digital implementation and funding in LMICs, and what it really means to decolonize global health.

Absolutely chuffed to have had the chance to speak with WHO Director of Digital Health and Innovation, Dr Alain Labrique. 
That he’s also a listener of the podcast? Even better.

Alain is an engaging storyteller, shaped by a childhood in the streets of Dhaka and decades spent advancing implementation science to reach underserved communities.

We spoke at length about the unfolding crisis in healthcare delivery in many settings that have relied heavily on development funding. While the impact on clinical services has received attention, Alain highlighted a deeper, less visible collapse: the quiet failure of digital infrastructure: servers, IT systems, and backend platforms now left unfunded and unsupported.

At the same time, WHO itself is navigating similar pressures: budget cuts, shifting priorities, and an urgent need to re-focus. Alain offers a refreshingly honest take on what comes next for WHO and how the organization can stay relevant in a rapidly changing world.

Crucially, it's inspiring to hear a leader from such an influential institution speak with clarity and conviction about shifting power, building local ownership, and rethinking how global health is funded and framed.

On our episode on AI ethics with Jess Morley, she spoke about how rhetoric shapes collective mindsets and changes behavior and markets. This conversation with Alain is, in my view, the kind of rhetoric we need more of.

00:00 Introduction and Background of Alain Labrique
12:05 Development funding cuts impact on digital infrastructure
24:01 What future funding mechanisms need to consider
27:26 The Role of Private Sector in Health Infrastructure
31:14 Responsible Partnerships in Health Innovation
33:00 The Evolving Role of WHO in Digital health now
38:21 Building Capacity and Governance in Health Systems
40:41 Navigating AI in Health Care
46:22 Learning from Failures in Health Initiatives
50:27 Advice to Founders building in Underserved Communities

Implementation. What does it mean? Why is it hard? How do we get it right? 
Failure. Are we, in Global Digital Health, thinking and acting in a way that doesn't help us move forward?

Caroline Perrin, Director of the Geneva Digital Health Hub joins us on the Global Perspectives on Digital Health podcast to share her views on this. 

This episode is for the people doing the work to ensure digital health tools actually work for people.

It's about the messy realities - people, process, managing change and looking to constantly improve as our assumptions get updated. How to work through the hard, day to day challenges towards real outcomes for people experiencing and delivering care.

We hear about: 

• How the Geneva Digital Health Hub's Implementome maps out implementations across the world, especially the Global south and brings together a Community of people wrestling similar problems for knowledge exchange and connection
• The key challenges in getting digital health tools adopted, and how to use good implementation principles to get through the messy, day to day realities
• Challenges in Monitoring and Evaluation, and how to get the balance right between impact on what matters and what is in your locus of control. 
• How our industry and ecosystem needs to rethink how we talk about failure, and how we're opening up this conversation at the Geneva Digital Health day on 22 May 2025
• Plus some great examples and ways you can share challenges to contribute to the ecosystem. 

Links:

• Building and Implementing? Join Implementome: https://gdhub.unige.ch/implementome/main
• Digital Health Atlas: https://gdhub.unige.ch/implementome/projects
• Geneva Digital Health Day: https://gdhub.org/25gdhd/
• Implementation Reports: https://medinform.jmir.org/themes/145-implementation-report
• iCHECK-DH Guidelines: https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e46694

Chapters (with quick links)

00:00
Introduction to Digital Health and Geneva Digital Health Hub

07:40
Understanding Implementation in Digital Health

12:22
A community of implementors

20:09
Approaching Implementation as Founders and Developers

26:19
Monitoring and Evaluation Challenges

32:45
Future of Digital Health in Underserved Communities

35:31
Navigating Uncertainty in Digital Health Projects

38:45
Rethinking Success and Failure in Health Evaluations

45:46
The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Global Health

49:53
Creating Safe Spaces for Sharing Failures

54:04
Building Communities of Practice for Learning

57:30
Finding Hope in the Face of Challenges

About Caroline

Caroline Perrin is the Executive Director of the Geneva Digital Health Hub (gdhub) and has over 15 years of experience in digital innovation, programme management and multi-stakeholder collaboration. She specialises in using technology to improve the efficiency, sustainability and impact of health care.

With a PhD in Global Health, a Master's in Information Systems Management, and a Bachelor's in Business Administration, she has led large-scale digital health initiatives and worked with governments, international organisations, and the private sector to drive innovation and policy alignment.

Previously, she was a project manager for the RAFT telemedicine network and the Geneva University Hospitals eHealth and Telemedicine Service, focusing on the development and evaluation of digital health solutions to strengthen health systems. Caroline is passionate about bridging technology, strategy and policy to create scalable, high-impact solutions.

Help GPODH grow

Subscribe, leave us a comment on Youtube or your podcast player if you found this useful.
It really does help us grow and reach the right people who would benefit from this podcast.
Who would benefit from this in your network? Please share the love 💕

Find out more about me and read my Substack: https://shubstack.substack.com/

A healthtech investor's view on healthcare in Africa in the next 10 years. 

If you’re building or investing for impact with underserved communities in Africa, this episode is for you. 

Rowena Luk has walked the talk. She is the ‘OG’ of creating visibility on digital health in Africa, and has built and scaled for impact in over 40 countries on the continent, and has now scaled her own impact to support founders through her VC firm Africa Health Ventures. 

This episode covers so much, especially the challenges that Africa faces through development aid funding cuts. 

Rowena is bullish about where healthcare in Africa can get to, and makes a measured and compelling case for why this is a real moment to turn crisis into opportunity, and how the right mindset from VCs can help create resilient businesses that can scale and realize real health outcomes. 

I’ve often been vocal and skeptical about how hyper-fixated our industry is on financial aspects of value, and we discussed this at length. 

Rowena definitely altered my perspective.

My highlights:

• This is Africa’s moment. Rowena’s case for investing and the hard metrics business case is pretty compelling. 
• It is not always the case that VCs look at the short term only. In fact, philanthropy and development funding cycles themselves are short, and good VCs have a 10+ year view and look at broader value.
• You have to meet the market where it’s at. My takeaway: Africa is not homogenous. Do the work to know what is needed right now, and build a path to where you want to get. 
• If you’re a US or Europe based investor looking to invest in Africa, check your biases and leave your mental models at the door. Things are different here, in a good way. 
• Useful advice for people building and investing in Africa
• The importance of investing in distribution and infrastructure.  My read: You might have the perfect tool, but it’s hard to get hospitals and institutions to even know about them, let alone maintain, find payment models and have a path to adoption.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Digital Health in Africa

04:36 Rowena's Journey in Digital Health

06:43 The Investing landscape in Africa

13:19 The case for VC investment over philanthropic funding

20:47 Reimagining healthcare in Africa : building resilient health systems

26:00 Do VCs see value beyond financial returns?

29:08 Myths and Realities of Investing in Africa

36:14 Understanding Investment Biases in Africa

38:39 Identifying Market Needs and Product Diversity

40:44 Evaluating Healthcare Solutions and Market Readiness

42:22 Spotlight on Innovative Startups

46:26 Learning from Past Experiences

51:56 Key Tips for Building in Underserved Communities

54:30 Getting Started with Impact Investing

54:54 The Future of Healthcare in Africa

Additional Resources

If you're a healthcare founder, investor, or donor in Africa, check out the Africa Health Ventures monthly newsletter. It includes grant and investment opportunities, events, deals, notable startups, and industry news. Subscribe at AfricaHealthVentures.com/Newsletter.

About Rowena

Rowena Luk is the Managing Partner of Africa Health Ventures, a pan-African seed fund investing in healthcare innovations that will dramatically improve access and quality of healthcare on the continent and around the world. She is a healthtech founder, entrepreneur, and software engineer. She has deep experience scaling healthtech in 40 countries across Africa, including products adopted at national and international scale. Previously, Rowena was a Director at Madiro, an impact fund investing in healthcare in Africa; CSO at Dimagi, a social enterprise deploying digital health to 130 countries, and founder of a digital health nonprofit in West Africa. She hosts the Africa Health Ventures Podcast and lives with her family in beautiful South Africa.

Help GPODH grow

Subscribe, leave us a comment on Youtube or your podcast player if you found this useful. 
It really does help us grow and reach the right people who would benefit from this podcast. 
Who would benefit from this in your network? Please share the love 💕

Practical breadth and depth on the global state of regulation from someone at the cutting edge of regulatory policy. 

Shubs welcomes Hugh Harvey, founder of Hardian Health and a regulatory expert in digital health. Shubs and Hugh discuss the complex landscape of medical device regulation worldwide, with emphasis on how these frameworks impact digital health innovation in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Guest Background

Hugh Harvey is a former radiologist who transitioned to the digital health industry. After working at Babylon Health and serving as Clinical Director at Kheiron Medical (where they secured Europe's first CE mark for a deep learning-based breast cancer detection device), Hugh founded Hardian Health to help companies navigate regulatory pathways for AI and digital health solutions.

Key Discussion Points

The Global State of Medical Device Regulation

• Regulatory Variation: Hugh explains the significant differences in regulatory approaches between regions like the EU (stricter) and the US (increasingly deregulatory)
• (Some) LMIC Contexts: Only about 40% of African countries have actual medical device regulations, with only South Africa having comprehensive frameworks
• Cybersecurity Risks: Medical health data sells for more than financial data on black markets, making robust regulation essential for protecting patients

Challenges for Digital Health Innovators

• Founder Misconceptions: Many startups allocate insufficient resources for regulatory compliance. Regulatory compliance should represent 5-10% of a company's overall budget.
• Regulatory Debt: Postponing regulatory considerations creates compounding challenges that become increasingly difficult to address later down the line
• Large Language Models: Hugh's skepticism about LLMs in healthcare, noting they're "massively overrated" for medical reasoning tasks and face significant regulatory hurdles, and yet Hugh sees some promise over the hill. 

Practical Guidance for Digital Health Companies

• Getting the mindset right: Thinking about it in the same way you might approach a driving test. 
• Universal Standards: Quality management systems (ISO 13485) are increasingly harmonized globally
• Approach in LMICs: Thinking about deploying in an place where there is little to no regulatory structure? You might want to consider securing certification in countries with established regulatory pathways prior, and then work with the local government.

What Regulators Could Do Better

• Proactivity: Regulators should be more proactive in providing guidance on novel technologies
• Transparency: More open sharing of regulatory decisions would help the entire industry move forward
• Capacity: Governments should increase funding for regulatory bodies to reduce backlogs and improve efficiency

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
04:22 The State of Regulation in Healthcare
06:36 Why so regulated?
09:24 Global Perspectives on Regulatory Approaches
16:53 Harmonization of Global Standards
19:34 Recommendations for Regulators
31:53 Regulatory strategy for founders: The Driving Analogy
42:14 What if there is little or no regulatory enforcement where I operate?
43:59 The Five Stages of Regulatory Grief
47:44 Hugh's spicy takes 🌶️

Key Quotes

• "Regulations are written in blood... the reason regulations/FDA are as they are today is because of events like thalidomide.
• "What's the cost of not being compliant? Well, it's everything, it's your entire business model."
• "The attack surface vector, especially under these generative AI models, is huge, vast, and frankly, completely unknown."

Hugh provides a compelling case for embracing regulatory requirements as not just necessary obligations but strategic advantages. While acknowledging the challenges of navigating complex regulatory landscapes, particularly for innovators working in regions with limited frameworks, he offers practical guidance on approaching compliance as a foundation for long-term success in digital health. You can find Hugh and his work at hardianhealth.com

Liked this episode? You might also like these:
Episode 3: Bilal Mateen
Episode 5: Prof Stephen Gilbert

💕 If you found this podcast episode helpful, please leave a comment, give us a 5 star review and share with your colleagues and people who would find this useful. It helps us reach the people who are implementing and could find this useful in creating an impact with digital health in LMICs. Check out the Substack here

Dr. Smisha Agarwal (Johns Hopkins University Global Center for Digital Health Innovation) joins me to unpack some hard truths on the Global Perspectives on Digital Health podcast. 

🛑 Why global health systems remain fragile

 📉 How digital tools often scale without legitimacy

 📊 What’s wrong with our fixation on "did it work?" and significance values

 🔁 And how global health is stuck in systems that haven’t evolved

💬 “We’re brought into a system of aid and global development that has stopped questioning how things were done. And the world has progressed, but our field hasn’t.”

🔑 But Smisha also offers a way through:

- Thinking differently about evaluating system level impact

- The work of the Oxford Open Health Journal to increase visibility and representation of people's research in LMICs

👉 If you work in digital health, research, policy, or global development this is for you.

About Smisha:

Dr.Smisha Agarwal, PhD, MPH, MBA, BDS is the Director of the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation and Associate Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She brings expertise in advancing primary health

care through strengthening community health systems and leveraging innovative technological solutions including digital devices. A part of her research has focused on using predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms based on routine monitoring data to enhance our understanding of quality of care, create safety nets to care for high-risk populations and improve effectiveness of reproductive health services.

Over the last two decades, her research has been leveraged by normative agencies like WHO to develop guidelines on national digital

transformation, donors to guide investments in primary health care, and governments to develop their national digital health strategies. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Open Digital Health Journal.

• (00:00) - Introduction, Smisha's background

Bringing research to implementation.

Shubs is joined by Lucy Cesnakova from DiMe in this quick dive into an important piece of research bringing insights to advance digital solutions that serve mental health, DiMe's work here was great here because Lucy and the team intentionally sought out input from different countries, access levels and other demographics across the ecosystem. It's great that the Wellcome Trust funded this work. And more of this type of research would clearly be, ahem, welcome.

Why should I listen?
This will be useful if you are building solutions with underserved communities in mental health and applies both to high income and LMIC settings.
If you are researching digital endpoints and biomarkers in mental health or involved in health system transformation for mental health this is well worth a listen. 

We cover the big commonalities across all geographies, plus what we can learn about local nuances as well as some key a-ha moments Lucy and the team gained.

Check out my substack article for a written reflection on this episode.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to DiMe and Lucy's work
03:57 Current healthcare context
06:01 Methodology of Research and Data Collection
08:27 Key Findings: Universal Commonalities in Mental Health Technologies
16:04 Unique local insights

Here's the full report: https://datacc.dimesociety.org/mental-health/
DiMe society:https://dimesociety.org/

About Lucy:
Lucy Cesnakova, MS, is a Program Lead at Digital Medicine Society (DiME).
At DiME Lucy has led several projects in the space of digital measurements and technologies for health: a flagship pre-competitive collaboration project to advance the digital measurement of nocturnal scratch; an initiative that explores path forward for sensor-based digital health technologies for mental health; or recent work on use of patient-generated health data in development of medical products and health technologies. 
At DiMe she works with industry, patient organizations, regulators, clinicians and payers to create resources that will improve adoption of digital technologies in research and care. In the past, Lucy has led technical development of digital endpoints or other software solutions as a product lead. 

Special bonus episode. This is a shortened version of the episode with Jess Morley, focusing on ethical approaches and takeaways relevant for digital health companies.

How do you move from  having ethical approaches as 'nice to haves' to actually getting prioritised.
It can be tough when good intentions rub up against business realities.

Jess shows how you can avoid getting your initiative or feature getting kicked down the roadmap.

People who will find this useful:
Product managers and product leaders
Design/UX folk
Software engineers
Clinical safety officers
Clinicians working at digital health companies
Quality assurance and regulatory professionals
Founders
Operations leads

Making Ethics Actionable.

What can the UK’s AI Action plan reveal about the state of ethics in the digital health industry?

If you are a health system leader or government entity, how do you elevate ethical approaches in your ecosystem? What levers are available?

And for the builders: product leaders, founders, clinicians at health tech companies, software engineers, designers, QA folk: how to negotiate and advocate for ethical approaches against business realities in the current climate?

We cover all of this, as well as Jess’ super hot takes on the UK govt AI action plan, Ethics 101 for vendors, researchers and policy folk, AND what leaders in LMIC settings can take away from all of this.

Jess Morley of the Digital Ethics Center at Yale also previously worked with NHSX and also on the Goldacre review in 2022. She has deep expertise on ethics and policy and some really unique insights.

Links to stuff we discussed

UK Govt AI opportunities action plan

Jess' linkedin article with commentary on the action plan

Goldacre review

Jess' Google Scholar

Yale Digital Ethics Center

🎙️ New Episode: Connecting Global & Local Perspectives in Digital Health Implementation

In this special episode, we close out the year with two fantastic guests: Rigveda Kadam, Digital and AI Lead at FIND, and Andrew Muhire, Chief Digital Officer at Rwanda's Ministry of Health.

Building on the innovator insights in Rwanda from our previous episode with Dr. Jana Alagarajah, this discussion dives into the critical connection between product development partners and ministries of health to create conditions for successful digital health implementation.

From Rwanda’s patient-centered approach to FIND’s global perspective across LMICs, we explore:
✔️ How Rwanda balances top-down mandates with frontline adoption to foster trust.
✔️ Tackling antimicrobial resistance with clinician decision support as a case study.
✔️ Using systems thinking to measure success in evolving interventions—Andrew’s "contribution lines" approach is a must-hear!
✔️ Rigveda’s wishlist for the ecosystem: from WHO priority areas to better alignment on patient journeys.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation on infrastructure, policy, and trust—key elements for making impactful digital health innovations stick.

FIND: https://www.finddx.org/
 
Some resources mentioned:

1. Rwanda MoH 7 priorities: https://newmoh.staging.risa.rw/1/strategic-plans-priorities
2. The value of diagnostic imaging for enhancing primary care in low- and middle-income countries: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(24)00478-4/fulltext
3. ASSESSMENT OF DIAGNOSTIC GAPS AND RELEVANT DIGITAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS SUMMARY FINDINGS FROM PERU, INDIA, NIGERIA AND UGANDA: https://www.finddx.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/20201515_rep_assessment_dx_digital_health_FV_EN.pdf
4. Principles for Digital Development: https://digitalprinciples.org/
5. Overview of the validation platform: AI validation platform

About the guests:
 
Riveda Kadam: Experienced global health strategist with expertise in digital health, AI, and public health programs, driving impactful innovations and policy alignment.
Andrew Muhire : Chief Digital Officer at the Rwanda Ministry of Health

Implementing a digital mental health solution in Rwanda.
What does real, meaningful co-design look like?
What does it mean to truly engage with a community to develop a solution they actually use and that addresses their problems?
What incentives and mindsets allow us to, instead of 'driving' a certain technology into a context, stop and listen, and go in with no pre-conceived notion of what would be built?
How do we get procurement and policy to really value and elevate equitable solutions?

These are some of the great questions we covered in the latest podcast episode with Dr Jana Alagarajah. His wide experience, and work implementing a digital mental health tool with young people in Rwanda gives us some great talking points. Jana shares what he learned working with people and community leaders, as well as carers, and how they approached co-design and evaluation.

We also talked about his insights from working in partnership with UNICEF, USAID, the King's Fund and Health Foundation. 

Dr Jana Alagarajah (MD MPH): Digital mental health specialist, UK-trained public health doctor, and psychiatrist co-designing equitable and impactful digital health innovation in Africa with young people as Technical Lead at YLabs. Partnering with UNICEF, USAID, and Gates Foundation, he leverages digital tools to strengthen health systems.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janaganalagarajah/

YLabs: https://www.ylabsglobal.org/
Grand Challenges Canada: https://www.grandchallenges.ca/

Key Resources: 

• Design:
  • Co-design: YLabs’ Youth-driven approach to digital health focussing on co-designing with youth. 
  • Designing for diversity: Importance of co-creating culturally adapted tech to address health inequalities in diverse populations - report from NHS Race and Health Observatory. 
  • Regulation: Co-developed Africa’s first evidence-based digital mental health regulation (‘HealthTech Hub Africa Digital Health Policy Blueprint 1.0’) with the Rwandan Ministry of Heath, Africa CDC, Jhpiego, Novartis Foundation covering key design elements such as interoperability, data privacy and UX approaches to meet the needs of diverse populations. 
• Implementation:
  • Digital stigma reduction tool: ‘Prepare for a Better Tomorrow’ (Rwanda, 2021): Rwanda’s first youth-driven, holistic digital learning and peer support platform to increase mental health literacy and psychosocial support for Rwandan youth aged 10-19 years old. Funded by Grand Challenges Canada. 
  • Digital tools for mental healthcare workers: ‘USAID Kijana Nahodha’ (Tanzania, 2023): digital mental health education and referral tool for community health workers in Tanzania as part of a $5.4M USAID grant, impacting 140,000 youth and 250 community health workers. 
• Evaluation: 
  • Evidence generation: A systematic literature review evaluating the efficacy of digital mental health technologies for youth in low and middle-income countries: Alagarajah J, Ceccolini D, Butler S. Digital mental health interventions for treating mental disorders in young people based in low-and middle-income countries: A systematic review of the literature. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health. 2024;11:e74. doi:10.1017/gmh.2024.71
  • Innovative approaches to digital evaluation: At YLabs, we have utilized traditional evaluation methodologies such as cluster RCTs to evaluate our digital interventions. However, given the challenges in evaluating digital health solutions, novel methodologies, such as cyclical evaluation, can be used to maximize usability, and support integration into health systems.