intelligence, mobile applications, or electronic records. Its true starting point lies deeper: in the health system’s ability to organize, protect, and responsibly share information.
Without reliable data and systems capable of communicating with one another, digital initiatives become fragmented. Thus, data governance and interoperability are not just secondary components of digitalization; they are the structural foundation that allows everything else to function.
In Mexico, Transform Health Mexico has helped place this conversation at the center of the public agenda. Grounded in equity and rights-based Health Data Governance Principles and institutional strengthening, the national coalition promotes a vision in which digital transformation only makes sense if it improves care delivery, reduces inequalities, and builds trust.
Interoperability: When Information Follows People
Interoperability enables different health systems and institutions to share information and interpret it consistently. It is what prevents medical records from remaining confined to a single facility and allows care to continue seamlessly when patients move between providers.
When information flows effectively, coordination among professionals improves, duplication is reduced, medical errors decrease, and resources are used more efficiently. Interoperability also strengthens long-term sustainability by enhancing operational efficiency across the system.
Across Mexico and Latin America, however, institutional and technological fragmentation remains one of the main barriers to achieving this goal. Addressing this fragmentation is essential for improving health system management and delivering more integrated care.
Data Governance: The Condition for Trust
Interoperability can only be consolidated if clear rules exist regarding how health information is used. Data governance establishes how data is collected, protected, and shared, defining responsibilities, safeguards, and boundaries.
It also recognizes individuals as rights holders over their health information, ensuring access, control, and meaningful informed consent. As the World Health Organization has highlighted, interoperable systems facilitate information exchange among providers, empower individuals by giving them greater visibility over their own health data, and enable more proactive health management.
Supported by strong governance, interoperability becomes more than a technological objective — it becomes a strategic necessity for the sustainability of health systems.
Transform Health Mexico’s Contribution: A Roadmap for Strengthening the Foundation
Within this context, Transform Health Mexico developed its Guidance on Digital Health Transformation and Interoperability to help shape a more coherent and people-centered digital ecosystem in the country. The document is available on the Transform Health Mexico website, in the Guidelines section, where the full publication can be accessed. It was developed through a multi-stakeholder process that brought together at least 17 named contributors and a broader set of participants spanning federal and state health authorities, public health institutions (including IMSS, ISSSTE and IMSS-Bienestar), regulators, academia (including UNAM), bioethics leaders, civil society and patient representatives, and private-sector health and technology organizations, to ensure the recommendations reflect both international technical standards and the realities of Mexico’s health system.
Beyond serving as a reference framework, the Guidance is intended to inform discussions around Mexico’s evolving secondary health legislation, particularly in relation to data protection provisions, interoperability standards (including HL7 FHIR, SNOMED CT, LOINC and ICD-11), electronic health record modernization, digital identity integration through CURP biométrica and Llave MX, electronic prescription frameworks, and the establishment of national digital health governance mechanisms.
As the secondary legislative process advances, Transform Health Mexico seeks to engage with federal legislative bodies including the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic to provide technical input and advocate for the incorporation of these principles into emerging regulatory and policy frameworks aligned with the Universal Health System reform agenda.
The document adapts international principles to the Mexican context and underscores that digital transformation must ensure technology serves people’s well-being while strengthening the health system as a whole.
From this perspective, interoperability is grounded in principles such as granular informed consent, comprehensive security safeguards, transparency in data use, evidence-based decision-making, and universal access to digital health services.
Building a strong digital health system requires more than technological innovation. It requires solid foundations. Interoperability allows information to follow people; data governance ensures that this exchange happens securely and with respect for individual rights. Together, they form the cornerstone of a truly people-centered digital health transformation.
Achieving this vision, however, requires sustained collaboration across sectors. Transform Health Mexico invites government institutions, academic partners, civil society organisations, private sector actors, and youth networks to engage in this ongoing effort and contribute to building a digital health ecosystem that is equitable, interoperable, and grounded in public trust.