Equity across the regulation, implementation and evaluation of digital health

The digital transformation of health systems has rapidly accelerated since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, reshaping how people connect, access information, and engage with health services. Digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) offer significant potential to prevent poor health, improve access to care, enhance efficiency, and deliver better patient outcomes. However, ensuring equity in digital health systems is essential to avoid further marginalizing disadvantaged populations and to support innovation that can help reduce health inequities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies equity as a priority in both the Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025 and the Regional Digital Health Action Plan for the WHO European Region (2023–2030). While regulations, frameworks, and guidance for digital health increasingly reference equity, it remains unclear whether these references go beyond high-level principles and are effectively embedded into the design and implementation of digital health systems.

To address this gap, Public Health Wales (United Kingdom) conducted a scoping review to assess how equity is incorporated into the regulation, implementation, and evaluation of digital health systems. The review aims to provide insights to support efforts to strengthen equitable digital health systems across the WHO European Region.