Bridging the Digital Health Gap Through Private Sector Engagement

An estimated $12.5 billion is needed to support the digital transformation of health systems in low- and lower-middle-income countries by 2030, yet health-related official development assistance has declined substantially in recent years. The scale and complexity of digital health transformation frequently exceed the capacity and resources of governments acting alone, making the case for structured public-private collaboration more urgent than ever — and raising important questions about how such partnerships should be designed to be both effective and equitable.

Produced as part of the Digital Health Exemplars project within the Exemplars in Global Health program, this McKinsey Health Institute report examines how public-private collaboration can help bridge the digital health gap in resource-constrained settings. Drawing on more than 20 case studies across five countries, Canada, Estonia, Mexico, Tanzania, and Togo, and more than 50 expert interviews, it distills lessons on how to design, finance, and sustain digital health partnerships with a focus on how private sector actors can engage effectively with public health systems across different contexts.

A design framework structured around six dimensions covers the why, who, and how of private sector engagement, tailored to varying country contexts and digital health ecosystem maturity levels. Five common challenges are identified that governments face when engaging the private sector uncertainty about where to invest, difficulty finding the right capabilities, financial uncertainty, historic mistrust, and questions about long-term sustainability alongside the spectrum of approaches used to address them.

The report is clear that private sector engagement, while promising, carries risks requiring careful governance: data privacy, vendor lock-in, data fragmentation, financial sustainability, and equitable access must all be addressed. Effective partnerships depend on strong governance frameworks, public sector technical capacity, and strategies aligned with national digital health priorities and each country's specific context and ecosystem maturity.