Lebanon has unveiled its National Digital Health Transformation Strategy for 2025–2030, setting out an ambitious roadmap to modernize the country’s healthcare system through technology, innovation, and collaboration. The strategy presents a forward-looking vision that leverages e-health solutions, medical informatics, and artificial intelligence–driven decision-making to improve service delivery, strengthen health outcomes, and ensure more efficient use of limited resources. At the same time, it openly acknowledges the structural challenges that have slowed digital health adoption in Lebanon, including fragmented governance, weak infrastructure, limited funding, and the broader impact of prolonged national crises.
Recognizing that digital transformation cannot be achieved by any single institution, the roadmap is built on a co-creation and shared implementation model. It promotes collaboration between government entities, international organizations, healthcare providers, the private sector, academia, and civil society. By engaging diverse stakeholders, the strategy aims to remain grounded in real-world constraints, align with national priorities, and build on earlier reform efforts led by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and its partners. This inclusive approach is intended to ensure that digital health reforms are sustainable, scalable, and responsive to Lebanon’s complex healthcare landscape.
Despite years of economic, political, and social challenges, Lebanon retains important strengths that can support long-term transformation. A strong tradition of collaboration in the health sector has demonstrated the value of multisectoral cooperation. Notable initiatives such as the Policy Support Observatory launched in 2018 by MoPH, the World Health Organization, and the American University of Beirut institutionalized evidence-informed policymaking and stakeholder-driven governance. This was followed by the Electronic Health Record Readiness Meeting in 2019, which brought together public and private stakeholders to assess national preparedness for EHR implementation and identify key barriers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinated national efforts led by MoPH between 2020 and 2022 further highlighted the importance of collective action, resulting in the development of the National Health Strategy: Vision 2030, which laid the foundation for strengthening system-wide resilience beyond the crisis.
The Digital Health Transformation Roadmap builds on these experiences, aiming to ensure that Lebanon’s digital health strategy is not only technically sound but also inclusive, interoperable, and aligned with both national and global health priorities. It reflects lessons learned from past initiatives while setting a clear direction for system-wide integration and sustainable governance.
Lebanon’s journey toward digital health began decades ago, with early initiatives such as the establishment of the Ministry Committee of Information and Communication Technology in the late 1990s and the launch of the first national Digital Strategy in 2002. These efforts laid the groundwork for digital governance and public administration reform. More recently, the National Digital Transformation Strategy developed by the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform for 2020–2030 emphasized user-centric services, integration across sectors, and sustainable development. While digital health was identified as a priority area, progress remained limited due to resource constraints, siloed projects, and the absence of a unified governance framework.
Within the health sector, MoPH has demonstrated notable innovation despite these limitations. Digital solutions such as PHENICS for primary healthcare management, MERA for immunization tracking, MediTrack for chronic medication management, and the Sohatona app for supporting caregivers illustrate Lebanon’s capacity to develop context-specific digital tools. These initiatives, supported by partners including the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, and local NGOs, highlight resilience and technical capability even amid workforce losses, funding shortages, and national instability.
At the same time, the private healthcare sector has adopted digital tools in a fragmented manner, with limited interoperability between systems. The absence of national standards has resulted in data silos that hinder continuity of care. While innovations such as telemedicine platforms emerged during the COVID-19 crisis, their long-term sustainability remains uncertain due to aging infrastructure, IT brain drain, and the lack of clear regulatory frameworks. The strategy emphasizes the need for stronger public–private partnerships to define national standards that protect data, enable secure exchange, and expand access to care.
The cumulative impact of overlapping crises has led to fragmented pilot projects, inconsistent funding, and a reliance on donor-driven initiatives, limiting long-term planning. Regional experiences show that countries investing in integrated digital health infrastructure and strong data governance achieve better outcomes, underscoring the urgency for Lebanon to strengthen its approach.
In early 2023, the National Health Strategy: Vision 2030 reaffirmed digital transformation as a key enabler of health system strengthening. This commitment was reinforced during the Digital Health Retreat hosted by MoPH in May 2023, where stakeholders assessed the digital health landscape and agreed on the need for a unified national vision centered on governance, interoperability, data management, and user-centric care. These discussions resulted in a clear digital health vision aligned with international best practices emphasizing integration, open platforms, and continuous evaluation.
The Digital Health Transformation Strategy is closely aligned with the National Health Strategy’s goals of expanding universal health coverage, improving health data systems, and delivering patient-centered care. By integrating administrative and clinical solutions such as electronic health records, telehealth, referrals, medication management, and appointment scheduling, the strategy aims to enhance service delivery at all levels. Improved data integration is also expected to strengthen financial management, inform policy decisions, and improve emergency preparedness through real-time surveillance and analytics.
Recent progress under the National Health Strategy demonstrates the potential impact of digital investments, including the expansion of MediTrack to primary healthcare centers, upgrades to PHENICS to support emergency and mobile care, planning for standardized EHR implementation, and the automation of hospital discharge summaries. These achievements highlight the value of strong leadership and collaboration in driving reform.
International partners have played a crucial role in supporting Lebanon’s digital health efforts. UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, the World Bank, the European Union, and others have contributed to strengthening health information systems, expanding immunization tracking, enhancing disease surveillance, and supporting mental health innovations such as the Step-by-Step digital intervention. These efforts, while still fragmented, demonstrate the significant potential for integrating technology into healthcare delivery.
Lebanon’s progress was recognized internationally when it received the 2023 UN Inter-agency Taskforce Award for advancements in scaling up digital health initiatives. With the new Digital Health Transformation Strategy, Lebanon now has an opportunity to consolidate past achievements, address persistent gaps, and reposition itself as a regional leader in health, technology, and innovation—working toward a more resilient, efficient, and equitable healthcare system by 2030 and beyond.
