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Digital Health Market Analytics

To achieve sustainability in digital health, we need a shared understanding of market forces and their influence on the digital health sector.

Market forces have a role in determining:

  • Which digital health tools get introduced, adopted, and scaled.
  • The underlying costs of digital tools.
  • The long-term opportunities for financing the digital transformation of health systems.

Through a series of analyses, PATH Digital Square, Vital Wave, and a consortium of partners whose publications are featured here have identified current challenges to sustainability, outlined cost drivers for digital health software, and developed recommendations, tools, and models that can lead to a more sustainable digital health marketplace.

Publication date: August 2025

Available materials

  1. English

    1. Total Cost of Ownership Tool 428.7 KB XLSX

      An interactive budgeting and benchmarking resource intended to help health leaders understand and develop more realistic budgets for digital health projects.
    2. Digital Health Sustainability Calculator 4.8 MB XLSX

      A tool designed to estimate the cost of delivering sustainable digital health in a country.
    3. Understanding the Digital Health Marketplace 118.4 KB PDF

      A brief introduction to Digital Square’s market analytics work and a summary of available analyses.
    4. Sustainable Digital Health at Scale: A Case Study 246.9 KB PDF

      A study on the implementation of electronic medical records in India, with key insights into what drives success and scale.
    5. Digital Health Market Analytics Phase 1 Findings 1.4 MB PDF

      How market forces influence which digital health solutions get introduced, adopted, and scaled.
    6. Phase 1 Detailed Analysis: How product attribute needs vary by digital health maturity level and influence rates of scale 1 MB PDF

      Outlines key product attributes for digital health tools across different levels of digital health maturity.
    7. Phase 1 Detailed Analysis: Development actor behavior through the lens of a value chain analysis 1.5 MB PDF

      Provides a view across countries of differing levels of digital health maturity, examining the private sector's role and opportunities for global goods to maximize the growth and sustainability of digital health.
    8. Phase 1 Detailed Analysis: The role of structural incentives in shaping the digital health market 705.4 KB PDF

      Provides a summary of findings from more than 20 key informant interviews with leaders from funding agencies and governments.
    9. Vaccine Market-Shaping 1980-2010 2 MB PDF

      Provides an overview of the vaccine market at key points in time, evaluates targeted market-shaping interventions relevant to today’s wireless connectivity and software markets, and documents at a high level how these interventions were operationalized.
    10. Checklist for Digital Health Investments 156.8 KB PDF

      A tool for decision-makers to ensure that their investments align with the Principles for Digital Development and the Principles of Donor Alignment for Digital Health, maximize return, and promote a healthy digital health ecosystem.
    11. Phase 2 Analyses: Factors Affecting Cloud Adoption in Low-Resource Settings 14.9 MB PDF

      Explores the drivers and barriers to cloud adoption and identifies areas of saturation within digital health markets.
    12. Phase 2 Analyses: Unmet Needs in Health Data in Low-Resource Settings 9.2 MB PDF

      Provides a landscape of the digital health and data sector to understand how current data needs are being met and to identify key unmet needs, particularly in care management.
    13. Measuring the Value for Money from Digital Health Interventions in Low-Resource Contexts 602.9 KB PDF

      Presents a replicable method for quantifying the potential health impact of digital health interventions, using a combination of peer-reviewed literature and modeling best practices.
    14. Understanding Total Cost of Ownership for Digital Health: Executive Summary 372.4 KB PDF

      A summary of the TCO to understand what costs to include in a five-year budget, common cost variances, hidden costs, and key questions to ask when budgeting for a digital health intervention.
    15. Understanding Total Cost of Ownership for Digital Health: Full Analysis 2.4 MB PDF

      Based on a comprehensive evaluation of costs for five nationally scaled logistics management information systems (LMIS) used to manage stock and distribution of lifesaving commodities, this reference document presents illustrative costs associated with the adaptation of an existing open-source global good for LMIS and its implementation and operation over a period of five years across various low-resource contexts.

  2. English

    1. Lives Saved Tool (LiST) Model Analysis

      Estimates the health impact of digitalizing last-mile logistics management information systems.