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This document summarises the main messages from the report of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing health futures 2030: Growing up in a digital world which was published in October 2021. It explains why the Commission was created and what its key findings and recommendations are. This youth edition of the report is written especially for older children and youth who are interested in the ways that digital technologies are shaping our health and wellbeing. At the end of the document, there are some ideas for ways that young people can get involved in building better digital health futures.
The Commission’s report contains lots of technical terms which are highlighted throughout the document like this. All of these terms are defined in a glossary at the end.
If you would like to read the full Commission report, please go to The Lancet.
Our world is undergoing big changes. Climate change, urbanisation, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic are among the major shifts that are transforming people’s lives, our planet, and our futures.
One of the most radical changes facing our world is the rapidly growing use of digital technologies and the data that these technologies produce. Digital devices connected to the internet can be found everywhere!
Technologies are changing how we learn about health issues, how we access our health care, public health systems, and even who and what we trust to help us make health-related decisions.
Figuring out how we maximise the benefits and reduce the risks of digital transformations to create better health futures is what the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing health futures 2030: Growing up in a digital world (GHFutures2030) was created to explore.
Viewing digital transformations of health through the lens of UHC, the Commission found that countries’ approaches to digital health governance are missing some important things:
Digital transformations have the potential to improve everyone’s health and to allow young people to play a bigger role in making decisions about things that affect their lives.
Everyone has a role to play in building better health futures.
For the first time, a joint The Lancet & Financial Times convergence of digital health, artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies with universal health coverage (UHC) to support attainment of the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
The Secretariat of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission
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As of November 2023, please contact us at team@dthlab.org
Our world is undergoing big changes. Climate change, urbanisation, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic are among the major shifts that are transforming people’s lives, our planet, and our futures.
One of the most radical changes facing our world is the rapidly growing use of digital technologies and the data that these technologies produce. Digital devices connected to the internet can be found everywhere!
More than 90% of the world’s population has access to a mobile-broadband network.
Globally, one in three children and young people have internet access at home. But there is a big gap between access in high-income countries (87%) and low-income countries (6%).
Access to the digital world is increasingly important for our learning and development, accessing the things we need, staying in touch with friends and family, and for having fun.
The wide incorporation of the internet, digital technologies, and online platforms into different areas of our lives—including our health and wellbeing—are called digital transformations.
Sustainable Development Goals and achieving Health for All
In 2015, world leaders agreed on a set of global targets called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This included a target to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. UHC means that all people can get the health care they need without being pushed into poverty.
Many countries are not on track to achieve UHC by 2030. The use of digital technologies and data could help us to make faster progress towards health for all.
Technologies are changing how we learn about health issues, how we access our health care, public health systems, and even who and what we trust to help us make health-related decisions.
Here are just some of the ways that digital health tools can help us improve our health and wellbeing:
In 2019, 7.4 million children, adolescents, and youth died mostly of preventable or treatable causes.
The United Nations estimates that 5 billion people will not be able to access essential health services in 2030.
As well as creating lots of opportunities to improve health care, the use of digital technologies could actually harm our health and wellbeing. For example:
In our survey of more than 23,00 young people from around the world, 88% said they use some form of digital technology for health-related purposes. Read about the findings of the survey here.
Researchers and scientists are learning a lot about how digital technologies can impact our health and wellbeing. But technologies and how they are used are changing all the time. There is still a lot we don’t know.
To better understand how digital transformations in health can help or harm children and youth, it is important to consider what it means to grow up in a digital world.
Young people today experience digital transformations differently than older generations. Their lives are recorded digitally from—or even before—birth.
In general, young people use digital technologies more than older people. This means they have more opportunities to benefit from the digital world but also more chances to be exposed to risks that might damage health and wellbeing.
Even young people born in parts of the world that aren’t as well connected to the internet are affected by the ways that decision makers like governments and businesses use digital technologies and data.
Children and youth may require special support and protections because they have not yet developed the knowledge and skills needed to safely and effectively use digital technologies. In addition, they often have less freedom than adults to control their internet access, use of devices, or how their data is collected.
Young people’s experiences of growing up in a digital world aren’t all the same. Many young people remain totally disconnected and are missing out on opportunities to use technology to support their development, wellbeing, health, and citizenship.
Check out the Commission’s profiles of digital childhoods.
Figuring out how we maximise the benefits and reduce the risks of digital transformations to create better health futures is what the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing health futures 2030: Growing up in a digital world (GHFutures2030) was created to explore.
The Commission specifically focused on the governance of digital health and studied the ways that different countries, businesses, and global organisations are using digital technologies and data to improve young people’s health and wellbeing. They also gathered information on what kinds of policies and plans countries already have on technology and health.
The GHFutures2030 Commission spent almost two years doing research and talking to leading experts from around the world about the ways that digital technologies can contribute to UHC and support or harm the health and wellbeing of young people.
The Commission convened many meetings with experts from around the world and spoke to young people about their hopes and concerns around digital technologies, health, and the future.
Learn more about the Commission and how it worked.
Viewing digital transformations of health through the lens of UHC, the Commission found that countries’ approaches to digital health governance are missing some important things:
Most digital health strategies aren’t focused on maximising the public health value of digital health and data and digital technologies to tackle global health challenges and improve the health of as many people as possible.
Approaches to digital transformations in health and other areas are not sufficiently grounded in key principles—such as solidarity, human rights, equity, and inclusion which could help to increase the public value of digital health and prevent technology and data being used in harmful ways.
Despite the global nature of the internet and digital transformations, governments are slow to cooperate with other countries in agreeing common global frameworks to govern digital health and health data.
Whether a person is healthy is increasingly shaped by their access to affordable digital technologies. Therefore, digital connectivity should be considered as an important determinant of health.
Governments are not using their full powers to control the actions of technology companies so they promote health, wellbeing, and human rights—especially for young people.
This has led to an imbalance of power with some companies and countries extracting large amounts of data from people without creating public value.
Overall, young people are excited and optimistic about the benefits of digital transformations for their health and wellbeing. But, they are:
Despite young people being uniquely equipped to shape positive health futures, their views are almost never prioritised in digital health strategies and youth are seldomly involved in policy development or technology development.
Digital transformations have the potential to improve everyone’s health and to allow young people to play a bigger role in making decisions about things that affect their lives.
But this will only be possible if collective action is taken to strengthen the governance of digital technologies and data.
Our health futures are being decided now!
To harness the power of digital technologies for better health, the Commission is calling on governments, technology companies, and other organisations to take action in four areas:
Everyone has a role to play in building better health futures.
Here are some ideas for how you can get involved. We’d love to hear your ideas too!
Still curious? Learn more about digital transformations in health. Explore the Commission’s website and follow us on social media to find more information.
