Public & Social Infrastructure · Health / Digital Public Infrastructure
Designing a National Digital Health Backbone
Timtony designed the operating model and funding architecture behind a national digital health backbone connecting public hospitals, primary care and the insurance fund.
Challenge
A national ministry of health had spent years accumulating disconnected digital systems — three competing electronic medical record platforms, a separate insurance claims engine, and pilot telemedicine programmes funded by different donors. Patient records did not move, claims took months to settle, and the next donor cycle was conditional on a credible national plan.
Solution
We were asked by the ministry, with the central insurance fund as co-sponsor, to design a single backbone the existing systems could plug into rather than be replaced by. We defined the data and identity layer, the operating model across ministry, fund and provincial health offices, and the blended funding structure combining sovereign budget, concessional finance and a PPP for the integration layer itself.
Results
The backbone design was endorsed by the inter-ministerial committee and by the two largest donors, unlocking the next funding tranche. The first two provincial roll-outs are live, claims settlement time has fallen from months to weeks in connected facilities, and the insurance fund has a single patient view for the first time.
Future Applications
The same backbone is being extended to community health workers and to a national pharmacy supply-chain module, and is being studied as a reference architecture by two neighbouring health ministries.
