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From AI to Wearables: WHO Outlines Global Plan for Digital Health Tools

Dec. 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Make way for digital health. Smart watches and health apps aren’t just for fitness enthusiasts and people with access to advanced care — the World Health Organization (WHO) is looking to these and other digital tech devices to enhance health and wellness across the globe.

As the world’s population becomes more and more connected, the WHO has reaffirmed its global strategy to boost the use of digital health tools.

The aim? To encourage countries to lean into digital health tools to support universal health coverage and improve well-being worldwide.

WHO defines universal health coverage as “all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship.”

 
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Official website of the United States Government

December 5, 2025

CMS Convenes Leaders Across Government, Clinician Societies, Digital Health Industry to Discuss Innovation Center ACCESS Model​

Yesterday, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz joined other leaders from across government—including from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)—and healthcare to build momentum for the bold, new CMS Innovation Center ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model.

The ACCESS Model supports CMS’ work on modernizing the nation’s digital health ecosystem and empowering Medicare beneficiaries through greater access to innovative health technologies. The Health Tech Ecosystem momentum is strong, and it is proving that the technology to transform care is available today. However, a payment mechanism that supports technology enabled care and the outcomes they achieve is needed. The ACCESS Model fills in that gap.

. The ACCESS Model will give Original Medicare providers and patients access to high-value, technology-supported care options to better prevent and manage chronic disease. The model—which will begin in July 2026—introduces an outcome-aligned payment option that rewards results rather than required activities, enabling new ways of delivering effective technology-supported care for conditions affecting two out of three people with Medicare, including high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and depression. It is designed to integrate with the broader health care system, enabling health care professionals, such as those in primary care, to refer people with Medicare to ACCESS participants as an extension of their care team.

In addition, the FDA discussed the recently announced Technology-Enabled Meaningful Patient Outcomes (TEMPO) pilot. In collaboration with the ACCESS Model, under the TEMPO pilot, participating manufacturers of certain digital health devices will offer devices for an intended use to provide care covered by the ACCESS Model while collecting, monitoring, and reporting real-world performance data. This pilot will help the FDA and CMS better understand how digital health technologies perform in real-life settings and how they may support efforts to improve care for people living with chronic diseases. The pilot supports CMS’s ACCESS Model, which aims to increase beneficiary access to technology-enabled, integrated care.

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