Public health institutions and health systems around the world struggle to keep pace with advancements in technology, and the consequences are significant. An estimated 4.2 million children under the age of five die annually from preventable causes, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition. The public health-technology gap is largely reflected in the profound impacts of poor or missing health data, inefficiencies in healthcare outreach and service delivery, inconsistent safety outcomes for medicines and vaccines, and widespread underfunding of global public health.

While there has been a strong response from the technology sector to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the gap only continues to widen. This is not due to a deficiency in the availability of scalable tools that can drive improvements in health, but a lack of systemic and sustained coordination between the private and public sectors. Consequently, we are failing to make progress on the most pressing health issues of our time.

Global public health remains dependent on 20th century technology, and PHiL is here to change that.

Existing digital and technology products have the potential to transform the quality and quantity of data collection, analysis, and sharing; to reduce errors and inefficiencies in healthcare outreach and service delivery; to address the underfunding of global public health by providing innovative and cost-effective solutions; and to increase the safety of care. Sustaining and scaling these efforts is key to their success.

PHiL brings together technologists and data scientists, public health experts, policymakers, researchers, communities, and entrepreneurs to close the technology gap in global public health.