From pilot to scale: three principles of sustainable digital health – opinion

January 21, 2026

• The Rwanda Health Intelligence Center is a direct results of years of purposeful and thoughtful investment within the foundations that form the digital backbone.
• Rwanda’s experience is a shining example of what the Global Fund has learned: to make sure lasting value, digital innovations have to be embedded in robust and resilient systems.
• AI in health must advance national priorities, strengthen public infrastructure and deliver tangible value.

In April 2025, the Rwandan Ministry of Health unveiled a brand new Health Intelligence Center. This impressive technological and operational achievement is already helping the federal government discover drivers of maternal mortality, more precisely goal HIV prevention resources, provide large-scale surveillance of household contacts of individuals with tuberculosis, and conduct surveillance of disease outbreaks, including mpoks.

The Health Intelligence Center is a direct results of years of purposeful and thoughtful investment within the foundations that form the digital backbone: reliable electricity and Internet connectivity, digital health facilities, a robust community of health care professionals, robust national electronic health records and surveillance systems, and ongoing efforts to achieve the last mile.

With these foundations, the Health Intelligence Center transforms data that after lived in underutilized, disparate systems into timely and actionable information. From insight to motion, the hub enables faster and accurate decision-making all the way down to the last mile, which is critical to all current enthusiastic about implementing artificial intelligence (AI) within the healthcare system.

Rwanda’s experience is a shining example of what the Global Fund has learned through its investments and collaborations with governments, technology firms and regional initiatives: to make sure lasting value, digital innovations have to be embedded in robust and resilient systems. Using modern tools without planning for a well-prepared landing environment can create confusion amongst pilots, but rarely leads to the specified progress. Standalone products – vertical disease-specific patient systems, multiple electronic health records, or product tracking systems – are inclined to cost more, fragment national capabilities, narrow the marketplace for future solutions, and ultimately may undermine public trust.

On the opposite hand, when national leaders spend money on constructing blocks comparable to infrastructure, data standards, expert people, markets for key products and interoperability platforms, the advantages of innovation are magnified – especially when private and non-private partners align and collaborate on these priorities. Building from the bottom up creates the conditions to responsibly scale AI to detect health threats earlier and direct resources where they’ll save probably the most lives. The Rwanda Health Intelligence Center just isn’t only a showcase of what digital health can do, but in addition a reminder of what strong foundations and cohesive partnerships make possible.

As participants on the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, we’ve got the chance – and responsibility – to make sure that AI in health strengthens national priorities, strengthens public infrastructure and delivers tangible value to people. We cannot afford to treat AI tools as stand-alone fixes that fragment already stretched systems. They have to be chosen, implemented and financed in a way that’s aligned with and advantages from national data systems, targeted procurement principles and ICT (information and communications technology) strategies.

Global Fund has been investing in digital technologies and data for over 20 years. These three lessons stand out:

1. Artificial intelligence brings the best value when it guides system-level decision-making, counting on robust data flows, common standards, and coordinated platforms that serve multiple health priorities. Emerging economies comparable to Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Zambia are taking the lead with partners in replacing siled disease-specific digital platforms with interoperable platforms designed for long-term sustainability.
2. Artificial intelligence requires strong institutions, transparent governance and sustainable financing. As countries and partners align with national structures, AI becomes adaptive, secure and resilient – ​​supporting each routine services and future threat preparedness.
3. Through blended public-private financing, technical assistance and implementation partners, the Global Fund supports countries in scaling AI-based diagnostics, strengthening surveillance and modernizing supply chains. These investments unlock national resources and personal sector participation, transforming promising pilot projects into functional, nationally owned systems.

Artificial intelligence won’t succeed with short-term experiments. It will succeed if we spend money on scalable, sustainable, integrated systems that support countries to make faster and more impactful decisions – decisions that save lives.

This article originally appeared in World Economic Forum.