EHTEL is honoured to be part of a new strategic initiative organised by the World Health Organization (WHO). Our involvement enables EHTEL to share our expertise in managing innovation and working with implementers. It also opens up a host of potential opportunities and synergies to get involved in ongoing European projects. Today’s focus is on the mental health status of the health and care workforce. But there is a major bigger picture at stake, involving many new and ongoing digital directions outlined by the European Union (EU).
What is the WHO Strategic Partners' Initiative for Data and Digital Health
In November 2024, EHTEL joined the WHO Strategic Partners Initiative for Data and Digital Health (SPI-DDH). The initiative is a multi-stakeholder platform launched in June 2024. Its work is based on two key WHO activities. One is the WHO Europe resolution “Leveraging digital transformation for better health in Europe: Regional Digital Health Action Plan for the WHO European Region 2023-2030”. The resolution is embedded in the WHO global strategy on digital health 2020–2025.
What are the SPI-DDH Objectives?
The initiative is aiming to implement and scale digital health in Europe, keep up-to-date on digital health developments, and foster partnerships that are working on the digital transformation of national health systems.
What does the Initiative focus on?
To address several identified challenges, the initiative has formed four working groups. The groups focus on:
- Digitalisation and responsible artificial intelligence (AI).
- Bringing health care and prevention into the home.
- Standards and interoperability in health care.
- Strengthening public health with a focus on mental health and the health workforce.
We are particularly proud to see that a number of outstanding EHTEL members and project partners are engaged in the work of these groups.
Spotlight on the SPI-DDH Public Health Working Group: healthcare workforce mental health
Today, we look at the focus of the fourth group. This working group zooms in on healthcare workforce mental health, particularly burnout. It covers digital health solutions that improve wellbeing, public health, and health system resilience while balancing technological innovation and operational efficiency.
It is looking to come up with a minimum viable product (MVP)/prototype GenAI app. This solution would leverage data and digital technologies to empower health and care professionals. Its several benefits would be to: prevent, monitor, and treat burnout; optimise health care workload(s); and improve operational efficiency in a supportive environment.
EHTEL is supporting this working group in two main ways. It shares findings from EU projects with a digital focus that are oriented either towards mental health or the status of the health and care workforce. Example projects include BeWell, COMFORTage, Equicares, Laurel, and xShare. It asks questions that further the discussions/exchanges and will sharpen the outcomes. Example questions include:
Overall, EHTEL’s concern concentrates on real-world challenges in a bricks-and-mortar reality (including what are the existing guidelines and any standard burnout screening procedures).
Stay tuned for updates!
Look out for what the Group has been and will be doing until the end of 2025:
- April 28-30, 2025: Attend the WHO Symposium on Health Workforce. An abstract entitled “From Burnout to Resilience: Leveraging AI to Optimize Workloads and Build Sustainable Healthcare Systems” was submitted for consideration.
- April 2025: Develop a prototype GenAI application. It will be an “AI-driven burnout risk assessment blueprint”.
- June-September 2025: Review the work and finalise the outputs.
- November 18-19 2025: Present outputs at the 3rd WHO European Digital Health Symposium in Malta.
The bigger picture: Synergies among today’s challenges
The Strategic Partners' Initiative on Data and Digital Health is a real strategic enabler. Beyond the WHO orbit, the initiative aims to monitor and embrace all major policy developments in digital health in the WHO Europe Region. The developments include EU regulations on medical devices, new medicines, and provisions for sharing health data and electronic records.
To quote the SSI-DDH (p10):
“[E]fforts will […] be made to align the outputs of the SPI-DDH working groups with major topic-specific and policy developments/projects in the WHO European Region, such as the European Health Data Space, the Digital Agenda for Europe, Europe’s Digital Decade 2030, EU laws (the Artificial Intelligence, Digital Services and Digital Markets acts), the EU regulations on medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices, the European Medicines Agency and the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format.”