To reduce child mortality and morbidity in developing countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF introduced the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy in the early 1990s. This strategy offered straightforward guidelines to conduct clinical assessments of children and manage common infectious diseases effectively.
Over the past decade, several organizations have developed electronic guides on tablets to implement IMCI recommendations. Institutions such as the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Terre des Hommes, and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have each created tailored digital tools. In 2020, these organizations convened a workshop during the Geneva Health Forum (GHF) to share their experiences, facilitated by the Geneva Science-Policy Interface (University of Geneva).
Following this workshop, a webinar was organized on 16 September 2021 in collaboration with the Global Digital Health Network, a U.S.-based network dedicated to advancing the use of digital tools to improve healthcare access. Additionally, insights from this initiative were shared at the Global Digital Health Network’s annual conference in December 2021, culminating in the publication of a scientific article in August 2023.
These milestones, coordinated by the GHF, have been instrumental in identifying field-tested best practices and refining the tools utilized by various organizations. Notably, the analysis of collected data uncovered gaps in IMCI protocols. Discussions are now underway with WHO and UNICEF to update these protocols in light of recent scientific evidence, ensuring their relevance and efficacy in contemporary healthcare settings.
