WHO’s Global Digital Health Certification Network is an open-source platform, built on robust & transparent standards that establishes the first building block of digital public health infrastructure for developing a wide range of digital products for strengthening pandemic preparedness and to deliver better health for all. 

Background 

One of the key tools used by many Member States in reopening economies during the COVID-19 pandemic has been digital COVID-19 test and vaccine certificates. As the directing and coordinating authority on international health work, at the onset of the pandemic, WHO engaged with all WHO Regions to define overall guidance for such certificates and published the Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination status and Test results in 2021 and 2022, respectively. 

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic response, there is a recognition of an existing gap and continued need for a global mechanism that can support bilateral verification of the provenance of health documents for pandemic preparedness and continuity of care. The GDHCN can be used as an infrastructural building block to support additional use cases, which may include, for example, the digitisation of the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, verification of prescriptions across borders, the International Patient Summary, verification of vaccination certificates within and across borders, and certification of public health professionals (through WHO Academy). Expanding such digital solutions will be essential to deliver better health for people across the globe. 

To meet this need, in line with the Global strategy on digital health priority actions, WHO has established the Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN). The GDHCN is builds upon the experience of regional networks for COVID-19 Certificates and takes up the infrastructure and experiences with the digital European Union Digital COVID Certificate (EU DCC) system, which has seen adoption across all Member States of the EU as well as 51 non-EU countries and territories. The GDHCN has been designed to be interoperable with other existing regional networks (e.g., ICAO VSD-NC, DIVOC, LACPass, SMART Health Cards) specifications. 

Technical information

The GDHCN is a trust network that is a digital reflection of the trust WHO already has with Member States. The trust network is operationalized through software infrastructure that enables Member States to bilaterally verify the authenticity of digital records and health certificates through an interoperable trust architecture, without WHO participating in any verification processes but acting as a “trust anchor”.