The Global Digital Health Forum is the flagship annual gathering of the global digital health community.

It is produced by TechChange in partnership with the Global Digital Health Network (GDHN), and convenes the governments, technologists, researchers, funders, and implementers working to make health systems more effective, more equitable, and more resilient through technology.

  • To accelerate effective and equitable digital health by convening the people and institutions who can scale what works. GDHF exists to move the field from promising pilots to proven systems, and to ensure that emerging technologies, AI most of all, improve health outcomes for everyone rather than widening the gap.

  • A world where every health system, regardless of resources, can harness digital tools and trustworthy AI to deliver better care. We believe that future is built through shared standards, open collaboration across borders, and honest exchange between the people setting policy and the people doing the work.

  • GDHF is a partnership. The Global Digital Health Network, founded in 2009 and now more than 4,000 members strong across 117 countries, leads on content, abstract selection, and program governance through its Co-Chairs and Advisory Council. TechChange, a social enterprise that has supported global digital health network-building and capacity-strengthening for over a decade, leads on operations, production, and the in-person and virtual experience. For 2026, GDHF is proud to be co-hosted by Thailand's Ministry of Public Health, with the support of WHO Thailand.

A Brief History

GDHF began in 2009 as the mHealth Summit, a single-day gathering in Washington, DC, built around a then-radical idea: that mobile phones and digital tools could transform health in the world's most underserved communities. From the very start it was global, with funding raised to bring participants from across Asia and Africa to share what was working on the ground.

Through the early 2010s the gathering grew quickly, filling convention halls and sharing the main stage with figures such as Bill Gates and Ted Turner. As the field matured, the community sought an identity of its own, and in 2015 the Global Digital Health Forum was born as an independent event, anchored by the Global Digital Health Network. For the next several years GDHF made its home in the Washington, DC area, becoming the field's essential annual meeting point for implementers, researchers, donors, and governments.

When the pandemic arrived in 2020, the Forum went fully virtual for the first time, in partnership with TechChange, welcoming more than 4,000 participants online for hundreds of sessions, complete with a 3D virtual convention experience. As the global health community raced to respond to COVID-19, GDHF became a vital place to share what was working. A second fully virtual edition of similar scale followed in 2021.

In 2022 the community came back together in person in Crystal City, in the Washington, DC area, and the energy of being together again was unmistakable. In 2023 GDHF grew into one of its largest editions yet, with more than 700 people on site at the Bethesda North Marriott in Maryland and several thousand more joining online. These hybrid years proved that the Forum could convene its global community no matter where in the world they were.

In 2024 GDHF took its boldest step yet, crossing to the African continent for the first time with an edition in Nairobi, Kenya. Made possible by partners including USAID, the Gates Foundation, and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, it welcomed close to 1,300 participants to the JW Marriott in Nairobi, with more than half coming from across Africa and a quarter from Kenya itself. A second Nairobi edition in 2025 drew over 900 participants in person and several thousand online, again anchored by majority participation from across the continent. That it thrived in a year of real headwinds for global health was a testament to the strength and resilience of this community.

In December 2026, GDHF comes to Asia for the first time. Hosted in Bangkok and co-hosted by Thailand's Ministry of Public Health with the support of WHO Thailand, this is the next chapter in a story more than 15 years in the making.