GENEVA — In a major push to strengthen health information systems and improve global health outcomes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a comprehensive new approach to improving access to life-saving data. The initiative, titled the SCORE for Health Data Technical Package, is designed to address critical vulnerabilities that have been laid bare by the global health crisis, offering nations a unified toolkit to collect, analyze, and utilize essential health statistics.
The COVID-19 pandemic has vividly highlighted the urgent need for timely, accurate, and reliable data to drive strategic public health action and mount effective emergency responses. Despite decades of advancement in medical science, numerous countries across the globe still lack both the foundational infrastructure required to routinely gather vital health data and the necessary analytical capacity to translate those figures into effective health interventions and crisis management.
"Countries must be able to measure progress to make progress," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, emphasizing the fundamental philosophy behind the new technical package. "Particularly during COVID-19, reliable data is the best way to coordinate response efforts and improve health in all areas."
Accurate health data are not merely administrative figures; they are recognized by public health experts as essential prerequisites for understanding specific country needs, improving overall population health, and ultimately saving lives. Furthermore, in an era of constrained national budgets and competing priorities, precise data helps direct scarce resources precisely to where they are needed most, maximizing the impact of every intervention.
To bridge these persistent gaps, the newly introduced SCORE—an acronym representing Survey, Count, Optimize, Review, and Enable—Technical Package aims to dramatically improve the availability of timely, reliable, validated, and comparable health data worldwide. For the first time, this initiative brings together all the key elements required for optimized health information system performance into a single, harmonized package. Put simply, the SCORE framework is designed to help governments around the globe set robust benchmarks and elevate standards in healthcare delivery.
The development of the package comes as a direct response to the glaring challenges of data availability that were thoroughly detailed in the WHO World Health Statistics 2020 report. To counter these systemic issues, SCORE incorporates more than 90 universally accepted tools and standards specifically tailored for strengthening national health information systems.
The rollout of the initiative has drawn strong support from international philanthropic partners who recognize the critical intersection between data collection and effective public health policy. Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its Data for Health Initiative, provided vital funding to support the creation and deployment of the SCORE for Health Data Technical Package.
"Using data to inform public health priorities and strategies has never been more important," said Dr. Kelly Henning, Director of Public Health Programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies. "The SCORE Technical Package provides country governments around the world with high-quality, essential technical guidance so that countries can strengthen their own data systems."
The World Health Organization has expressed deep pride in its ongoing partnership with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative to deliver this timely resource to member states, ensuring that governments have access to the highest caliber of technical assistance available.
Public health leadership at the WHO stresses that the urgency of this initiative cannot be overstated as nations continue to grapple with the multifaceted impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
"We must keep score to save lives," added Dr. Samira Asma, Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at the WHO. "WHO is committed to working with countries and partners to rapidly scale up capacity for data collection and use in order to improve policy and performance."
Dr. Asma underscored that the global community must act immediately to invest in robust statistical systems within individual countries, a step mandatory for successfully responding to the current pandemic, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and achieving the ambitious Triple Billion targets set by the organization.
"Our window of opportunity is closing, and we cannot wait to address data gaps," Dr. Asma warned. "Data use to address country needs has to be a priority today."
Experts note that country-owned, disaggregated data will be absolutely essential for building more resilient and sustainable health systems going forward. While the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a devastating wake-up call and a stark reminder of the immense challenges that remain to be addressed in global health infrastructure, it simultaneously presents a unique historical opportunity. By fostering international solidarity, transparent information-sharing, and close collaboration, nations can effectively "build back better."
The SCORE package stands as a prime example of how a collaborative approach can directly benefit individual countries by providing a common, standardized set of tools rooted in shared global standards. Designed from the ground up to be practical, actionable, and flexible enough to adapt to varying national contexts, the package reinforces the core message that the global community will only succeed in combatting COVID-19 and future health threats if nations work together.
The initial release of the comprehensive package includes two core foundational documents. However, this initial launch represents only the beginning of a broader rollout planned for the remainder of the year.
Future components of the SCORE Technical Package are scheduled to be released later this year, including the specialized SCORE Assessment Instrument as well as detailed global, regional, and country status reports. Together, these forthcoming additions will provide a complete, end-to-end package of information enabling governments to effectively plan and monitor their progress against national and subnational priorities, as well as broader global health targets.
The initiative continues to be coordinated through international public health networks, with communications managed through bodies such as the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva.
