Shaping digital health futures - Annual Review 2024

Publication
May 12, 2025
Aferdita Bytyqi
Ilona Kickbusch
By -

Annual Review 2024

“2024 marked DTH-Lab’s first full year – and what a year it has been. Building on the momentum of our 2023 launch, we have grown into a trusted convener and thought leader in digital transformations for health.”
Ilona Kickbusch, Director, and Aferdita Bytyqi, Executive Director

Read our Annual Review to find out how we:

  • Generated high-quality evidence on topics including digital determinants of health, data solidarity and AI governance – publishing our work in The BMJ, The Lancet and Health Promotion Journal of Australia.

  • Continued to drive innovations in policy and practice to shape equitable digital transformations of health – working with global platforms like G20, supporting regional initiatives with WHO and contributing to national policy discussions.

  • Engaged with national public health officials, international organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector to co-create solutions and build consensus on the digital transformations of health.

  • Strengthened youth as co-creators of equitable digital health systems and built the capacity of future health leaders. Including pivotal support to the WHO Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies launched in October 2024.
Read our Annual Review 2024
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As Executive Director of DTH-Lab, I'm driving forward the recommendations of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030 — bridging digital literacy, health literacy and civic engagement to empower communities and ensure young people thrive in a digital world. I am passionate about operationalizing innovative governance models to advance equity, protect communities and drive meaningful health outcomes in the digital transformations for health.  From building multistakeholder partnerships to co-creating solutions with young people, I work to strengthen health systems, protect digital health rights and foster sustainable, inclusive digital health ecosystems.  

My career spans over 25 years, spearheading international research, development, and regeneration initiatives on behalf of multilateral and bilateral agencies, as well as private donors. My previous professional roles include ICS Integrare, MBM, FAO, WHO and the Senior Coordinator of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission.

I am a DTH-Lab Founding Member and member of the Steering Committee; Member of the Advisory Board: “Health literacy of adolescents in Switzerland in an increasingly digital society” by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Member of the OECD Expert Group on AI in Health . I have a Dipl. Ing in Architecture and an M.Sc. in Urban Design in Development from UCL.

Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the DTH-Lab. She is a visiting professor at the University of Geneva, the founding director, chair and senior distinguished fellow of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She is known throughout the world for her expertise and is a sought after senior adviser and key note speaker. Her areas of expertise include the determinants of health, health in all policies, and global health governance. She advises countries on their global health strategies, trains health specialists, and is involved in German G7 and G20 health activities. She publishes widely and serves on various commissions and boards. She has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in recognition of her invaluable contributions to innovation in governance for global health and global health diplomacy. She has also been awarded the WHO Medal in recognition of her contribution to global health.

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