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Digital health refers to the use of novel information com­munication technologies in healthcare. The use of these technologies could positively impact public health and health outcomes of populations by generating timely data, and facili­tating the process of data collection, analysis, and knowledge translation. Using selected case studies, we aim to describe the opportunities and barriers in the use of technology applied to health-related research. We focus on three areas: strategies to generate new data using novel data collection methods, strategies to use and analyze existing data, and using digital health for health-related interventions. Exemplars from seven countries are provided to illustrate activity across these areas. Although the use of health-related technologies is increasing, challenges remain to support their adoption and scale-up –especially for under-served populations. Research using digital health approaches should take a user-centered design, actively working with the population of interest to maximize their uptake and effectiveness.

Introduction Informatics applied to health sciences has brought cutting-edge solutions to healthcare problems. However, the number of health professionals trained in "Health Informatics" is low. Virtual education, such as massive online open courses, provide the opportunity for training in this field. Objective To estimate the global offer of massive online open biomedical informatics courses and characterize their content. Methods A search for massive online open courses was conducted throughout December 2021 on 25 platforms offering these courses. The search strategy included the terms “health informatics” and “biomedical informatics”. The application areas of biomedical informatics, platform, institution, duration, time required per week, language, and subtitles available for each course were evaluated. Data were analyzed descriptively, reporting absolute and relative frequencies. Results Our search strategy identified 1333 massive online open courses. Of these, only 79 were related to health informatics. Most of these courses (n = 44; 55.7%) were offered through Coursera. More than half (n = 55; 69.6%) were conducted by U.S. institutions in english (n = 76; 96.2%). Most courses focused on areas of translational bioinformatics (n = 27; 34.2%), followed by public health informatics (n = 23; 29.1%), and clinical research informatics (n = 13, 16.5%). Conclusions We found a significant supply of massive online open courses on health informatics. These courses favor the training of more professionals worldwide, mostly addressing competencies to apply informatics in clinical practice, public health, and health research.