About this Research Topic

Background

In Africa, disease, environmental, political and security shocks coupled with weak governance and financing of health services continue to weaken the capacity to attain universal health coverage (UHC). Intrinsic challenges of the health system on the continent are linked to the poor investment in and lack of availability, and functionality of the building blocks of the health system. Extrinsic challenges include social, cultural and physical barriers to accessing health care. Attaining UHC requires application of innovative methods such as digital technologies to deliver essential health services. Digital health technologies have been shown to improve efficiency in health services delivery, reduce the cost of healthcare, improve access to health information and provide timely health information for evidence-based decision making. However, the implementation of digital health/eHealth programs in Africa is constrained by inadequate digital health governance frameworks, weak institutional capacity for implementing and sustainably funding digital health strategies.

This Research Topic, therefore, aims to explore the progress, challenges and future of how digital health innovations can be used to overcome challenges in providing essential health services in Africa. The focus shall be on identifying innovative concepts to addressing existing problems, sharing practical experiences on what has worked well, what did not work so well and how these innovations can be adapted to the context of Africa sustainably and cost-effectively.

In the context of this Research Topic, we define digital health or eHealth innovations as novel ways of applying information and electronic communication tools, services and technologies to improve healthcare delivery. Manuscripts on all aspects of digital health/eHealth technologies in Africa such as telemedicine/telehealth, mHealth, eLearning, electronic health records, internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, wearables etc. are welcome. The themes covered by this research topic include among others:

1. Application of digital health/eHealth to strengthen the different building blocks of a health system
2. Deployment of digital health/eHealth technologies and innovations to support effective preparedness for, response to and recovery from public health emergencies (especially the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), natural and human-made disasters
3. Use of digital health/eHealth to surmount social, cultural, financial and physical barriers to accessing healthcare
4. Innovative approaches in the implementation of digital health/eHealth programs to address issues such as sustainable funding, interoperability between various platforms, remote connectivity, community engagement and participation
5. Evaluation of the public health outcome, impact and cost-effectiveness of digital health/eHealth solutions
6. Deployment of digital health/eHealth solutions to strengthen institutional capacity for planning, implementation, supervision, monitoring and evaluation of public health programs
7. Innovative strategies and frameworks for digital health/eHealth governance, coordination and regulation at regional, national and sub-national levels

All article types accepted in Frontiers in Digital Health are welcome, including original research, systematic or scoping review, policy and practice review, perspective, policy brief, brief research report, general commentary, opinion etc.

Keywords: Digital Health Innovations, eHealth, healthcare delivery, public health outcomes, universal health coverage, Africa

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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