LAC needs to take unprecedented collaborative action to address an unparalleled social and economic crisis. Currently, countries face macroeconomic, fiscal, social, institutional, and health challenges, and they will need to make difficult decisions to meet their citizens’ needs, despite greater fiscal constraints. No country, government, or institution can overcome these challenges alone. The private sector, as a driver of growth, plays a vital role. Governments need to provide an environment that unleashes businesses’ potential to use creativity and flexibility to reach innovative solutions. At the same time, it needs to protect citizens’ rights and interests. Meanwhile, multilateral organizations need to come alongside countries as they design a landscape of effective actions, and then inject strategic support

The IDB Group’s “Vision 2025” outlines its support to countries and clients to meet these multiple challenges and achieve social and economic development in LAC by offering technical assistance, knowledge, funding, and partnerships that maximize the impact of efforts. The vision for 2020-2025 includes five areas of action, one of which is successfully adopting and using digital technology to drive longterm dividends for economies in terms of growth, innovation, and social inclusion.

In the health sector, digital technologies and tools offer the potential to tackle LAC’s three main enduring challenges: the triple burden of disease (particularly non-communicable diseases that are increasingly more difficult and costly to treat); financially and fiscally unsustainable spending; and low productivity and poor quality in services.

It is true that digital transformations are particularly difficult in the health sector. The health industry produces large quantities of confidential data, draws on multiple types of information that need to be standardized (diagnoses, prescriptions, lab tests, invoicing), and has a legacy of systems that operate in isolation and still use many paper-based processes. Digitally transforming health requires significant short-, medium-, and long-term investment, but deeplyrooted and difficult-to-change dynamics and behaviors between patients and providers have to be addressed as well.

However, global evidence suggests that a digital transformation, if done right, offers benefits in three main categories: the public health system, clinical care processes, and health outcomes. ¹ It is also important to weigh the potentially severe human costs of a botched implementation in this field.

Whatever the state of digital transformation in each country, as well as the fiscal challenges, government plans and national budget, and technological expertise of each, the IDB Group offers resources to chart a good path for DT, from the current state of affairs to a strong health system that is sustainable and cost effective. This publication is a guide for the journey.