We recently had the honour of hosting a panel discussion exploring the intersection of digital interventions, climate change, and health. The session brought together a diverse group of experts from global health, climate science, implementation, funding, and policy to unpack the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly-changing field.

Our CEO, Debbie Rogers, who moderated the panel, highlighted the importance for transdisciplinary collaboration. The panellists — Adetunji Eleso from Grand Challenges Canada, Simone St. Claire from the World Health Organization, Felipe Colón-González’s from the Wellcome Trust, and Nick Pearson from Jacaranda Health — each brought unique perspectives on how climate change is impacting their respective areas and how digital tools can offer solutions.

The Multifaceted Impact of Climate Change on Health

During the discussion, the panellists painted a picture of how climate change is exacerbating existing health challenges across various domains such as in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) where Simone highlighted how industries contributing to NCD risk factors, like tobacco, play a part in harming the environment. She also noted how climate change further intensifies NCDs through air pollution worsening respiratory conditions, extreme heat impacting cardiovascular health, disrupted food systems leading to reliance on unhealthy processed foods, and climate-induced migration exposing people to urban health risks.

Another health domain that is affected is communicable diseases. Felipe emphasised the intergenerational injustice of increased exposure to extreme heat events. He noted that, “A baby that was born in the 1960s would be exposed to about two to four heat waves throughout their life. But a baby being born in the 2020–2030 period is going to be exposed to between 20 and 40 heat waves or extreme heat events…”. He also pointed out the expansion of both the population at risk and the transmission periods for vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue.

Lastly, maternal and child health (MNCH) is also impacted and Nick detailed the particular vulnerability of pregnant women and infants to extreme heat, limited access to care during climate-related disasters like flooding, and increased incidence of malaria. Jacaranda Health’s PROMPTS platform is leveraging its vast data from conversations with mothers to understand the correlation between extreme heat and pregnancy complications.

The Promise of Digital Health Interventions

Despite the seriousness of the challenges, the panel highlighted the significant potential of digital health to address the climate-health link, such as:

• Early warning systems: Felipe underscored the importance of digital tools in predicting health outcomes related to extreme weather events and climate-sensitive infectious diseases, enabling better preparedness and resource allocation.
• Disease modeling and data: Innovative digital tools are important for modeling climate-sensitive infectious diseases, relying on robust data assets to feed these models.
• Climate services for health: Using climate information from various sources through digital platforms can inform decision-making and drive evidence-based policy.
• AI and evidence synthesis: Artificial intelligence and machine learning can curate and synthesise research evidence in real-time, making it more accessible to policymakers and implementers.
• Attributing causality: Developing digital tools to attribute health outcomes directly to climate change is a critical area needing advancement to strengthen evidence for action.
• Personalised responses: Digital tools like chatbots and AI can deliver tailored information and support to individuals, helping them mitigate and prevent climate-related health impacts. Nick highlighted Jacaranda’s work in personalising maternal health communication based on pregnancy history and potentially integrating real-time climate data.
• Leveraging existing scaled interventions: Simone showcased WHO’s Be He@lthy Be Mobile initiative and its evolution to provide timely health information via SMS and chatbots, demonstrating the power of adapting existing digital platforms to address emerging health threats during crises.

Key Considerations for Effective Digital Health Solutions

The panel also raised key points for ensuring digital health interventions are impactful and equitable which include:

• Accessibility and Cultural Relevance: It’s important to have inclusive dialogues with end-users and local stakeholders in the design process to ensure tools are user-friendly, culturally appropriate, and meet local needs.
• User-Centric Design: Design experiences need to be created in a way that users find valuable and easy to use, moving beyond purely academic perspectives.
• Policy Changes: Policy changes that prioritise community engagement, strengthen collaborations across sectors, and enable funding to reach community-led resilience programs are needed.
• Breaking Down Silos: Fostering transdisciplinary collaboration between health and climate scientists through joint leadership in research and creating common understanding through workshops is crucial.

Calls to Action: What Can We Do?

A powerful call to action emerged from the panellists. They advocated for prioritising real-time monitoring of local health impacts and urgently testing practical digital solutions within existing health systems, ensuring equitable and inclusive dialogues. The group also stressed collaborating to scale proven digital health interventions while pressing policymakers to accelerate NCD prevention policies. Ultimately, their message was to build strong coalitions among funders to bolster health systems and scale impactful innovations for everyone.

The message was clear: digital health is not a silver bullet, but a tool that, when developed and implemented thoughtfully and collaboratively, can significantly contribute to building climate-resilient health systems and mitigating the profound health impacts of our changing world. Reach Digital Health remains committed to driving innovation and partnerships in this critical space.

Are you working at the intersection of health, climate, or technology? We’d love to connect. Let’s explore how we can collaborate to make Health Possible for everyone.

Get in touch with our team at info@reachdigitalhealth.org