The DTH-Lab’s work will focus on three priority areas identified by the Commission:
The DTH-Lab will continue the Commission’s portfolio of research and analysis whilst at the same time establishing partnerships with youth, policymakers, technology companies and other actors to co-design and test governance solutions, particularly in low and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia with large youth populations. It will achieve its goals through a multidisciplinary approach that combines cutting edge research, strengthening youth leadership, driving innovations in policy and practice, and shifting public and political agendas.
Building on the Commission’s approach, the DTH-Lab will continue to promote youth leadership and support a generation of informed and enfranchised digital health citizens. Youth will be part of the Lab’s governance and play a major role in designing and testing solutions that will improve the health and well-being of future generations.
The establishment of the DTH-Lab is being made possible by a 3.5 year grant from Fondation Botnar. The Lab will be hosted at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine and based at Campus Biotech. Teams based at Ashoka University in India and PharmAccess Foundation in Nigeria will lead the DTH-Lab’s research and programmes in low and middle-income countries with large populations of young people.
An event to launch the DTH-Lab will be held in October at the World Health Summit in Berlin. During the event, partners at the University of Vienna will present PLUTO, an online tool to assess the public value of data use.
Aferdita Bytyqi is the Executive Director of the DTH-Lab ensuring the success of overall project goals and strategic objectives of the DTH-Lab both internally and with key external stakeholders within the global health ecosystem. With a career spanning over 25 years, she brings a wealth of progressive programmatic experience in spearheading international research, development, and regeneration initiatives on behalf of multilateral and bilateral agencies, as well as private donors. Her previous professional contributions include ICS Integrare, MBM, FAO, WHO and the Senior Coordinator of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission. Aferdita has a Dipl. Ing in Architecture and an M.Sc. in Urban Design in Development from UCL.
