The flagship global training for national digital health planning.
DH:PNS is a portfolio of curriculum and training services, endorsed by WHO and ITU and recognized as a Content Global Good, that equips Ministries of Health to design and build sustainable, interoperable digital health systems that lower the cost of delivery and improve patient care.
Built for the people who plan digital health at national scale.
Ministries across emerging markets rely on DH:PNS to align strategy, technology, and funding around one plan.
The planners
Ministry officials across health, ICT, and finance who do the daily work of planning national digital health systems in emerging markets — the people closest to the decisions, not just the signatories.
Their partners
Funders, multilateral organizations, and other planners investing in global digital health, who need a shared framework to coordinate around.
The shared goal
Coordinate stakeholders and interventions around one national strategy, and rebalance the relationship between local leaders and donors.
A scaffolded curriculum
Using TechChange's instructional design expertise, each module builds on the one before it. DH:PNS begins by establishing a foundational understanding of digital health, then defines health systems and how digital health can optimize delivery and outcomes.
The course then moves into the national digital health planning process, framed around a national strategy that leverages the enterprise planning approach. Key topics include enterprise architecture, interoperability and standards, digital health platforms, costing and procurement, and how to budget for sustainable planning.
The planning modules close on governance: stakeholder coordination, policy and regulation, and preparing a capable workforce. The course concludes with an overview of emerging technologies, including AI, and how to plan for them in your enterprise and health system.
Why this course exists
Since the 1990s, health systems have experimented with digital interventions, and the WHO has identified over 80 ways digital health can support outcomes. But as adoption grew, many interventions were built in siloed, donor-driven ways, causing fragmentation: data inaccuracies, cost inefficiencies, and interventions that aren't evidence-based or patient-centered.
Many governments struggle to coordinate these interventions around a common national strategy, and to rebalance the relationship between local stakeholders and donors. DH:PNS closes that capacity gap, empowering graduates with the frameworks, methods, and connections to organize stakeholders around a shared strategy.
A scaffolded journey, from foundations to the future.
The core modules build in sequence across three phases. Optional add-on modules, taught at the end, keep the course current with the field.
Foundations
Shared language and system context
The national planning process
The core of the course
The future
Planning for what's next
Taught at the end
Optional, and always evolving
How training turns into stronger health systems.
The logic is simple: equip the people who plan national systems, and they coordinate the fragmented pieces into something sustainable and country-owned.
What we bring
- WHO- & ITU-validated curriculum
- Expert facilitators
- Open, Creative Commons materials
- Four languages, five formats
What happens
- Facilitated cohorts & self-paced study
- Case studies, activities & a capstone
- Training of Trainers
- Community of Practice
Immediate results
- 1,000+ planners certified
- Reach across 93 countries
- Shared frameworks & tools in hand
- A lasting peer network
What changes
- The enterprise planning approach put to work
- National strategies revised & coordinated
- Global Goods & standards adopted
- Stronger local capacity & leadership
The goal
- Coordinated, interoperable national systems
- Sustainable, country-owned digital health
- Better service delivery & health outcomes
Progress is tracked with pre- and post-course assessments and follow-up studies that measure how graduates apply what they learned.
More than a course, a full library.
Self-paced course
Free comprehensive material online in English, French, Spanish & Portuguese.
Training of Trainers
Advanced professional development to equip trainers to deliver future cohorts.
Knowledge Repository
All course materials and source files under Creative Commons, for continued sharing and adaptation.
Live cohorts
Interactive blended, synchronous, and in-person delivery with facilitators. Certificate-based.
Community of Practice
A peer network that outlasts the course, where alumni connect and exchange knowledge across the field.
Architects of Digital Health game
An interactive board game for play-based practice of the concepts taught in DH:PNS.
Architects of Digital Health
A board game built into the course, where cohorts race to connect every system into a national interoperability layer before the health system fails. It turns dense planning concepts into a hands-on scenario players actually remember.
"The activities were mind-blowing and we were engaged throughout... one of the best courses I have attended."
MoH official, India
Languages
The full curriculum is available in English, with most modules also professionally translated and vetted in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. If you're a funder interested in adding a language, let's talk.
History
In 2019, TechChange partnered with USAID and PATH/Digital Square to develop and deliver the WHO's flagship digital health training for high-level Ministry of Health officials. After an exhaustive review of digital health frameworks, the team built a highly interactive course grounded in WHO- and ITU-validated approaches. It was piloted in person, converted to a fully virtual interactive format, and later adapted into blended and in-person modalities. Refined across dozens of cohorts, DH:PNS became a recognized Content Global Good in 2023.
Funding
DH:PNS represents more than a decade of investment. USAID and partners put over $1.2M into building the course between 2019 and 2024, with an additional $500K in instructor-led training of more than 1,000 planners. The Gates Foundation has since funded the new AI for Global Health content, and deliveries have been backed by USAID, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Global Fund.
Bring DH:PNS to your team or region.
Explore how to participate, deliver the course yourself, or fund a cohort for the planners who need it.