Costa Rica's National Digital Health Strategy 2023-2030
Costa Rica has launched a comprehensive National Digital Health Strategy aimed at transforming its healthcare sector through digital technologies. This strategy aligns with both national health policies and international digital health initiatives.
Key Objectives
The strategy focuses on three main strategic objectives:
- Establish a governance framework, policies, regulations, and compliance mechanisms to enable digital transformation in the health sector.
- Accelerate digital literacy among health professionals and the general population to create a secure digital culture.
- Implement a national health information exchange architecture to facilitate interoperability, standardization, and governance of health data.
Strategic Lines
The strategy incorporates seven strategic lines based on WHO and ITU guidelines:
- Governance and Leadership
- Regulation, Policy, and Compliance
- Strategy and Investment
- Digital Literacy for Human Resources in Health
- Standards and Interoperability
- Information and Communication Technologies Infrastructure
- Digital Services and Applications
Areas of Intervention
The strategy addresses ten key areas:
- Health surveillance
- Primary health care
- Expansion of health service coverage
- Efficient, transparent, and results-oriented management processes
- Interoperability of information systems at national and international levels
- Strengthening digital services and health applications
- Evidence generation for decision-making
- Development of digital competencies in health professionals and service users
- Health data governance with a human rights approach
- Strengthening innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurship, and digital health businesses
Governance and Implementation
The strategy establishes a governance mechanism to ensure coordination among various stakeholders, including public and private sectors, academia, civil society, and international cooperation organizations. It will be implemented from 2023 to 2027, with funding from existing health sector budgets, potential loans from multilateral organizations, donations, public-private partnerships, and innovation funds