Scoping review on environments to support digital health solutions valued by clinicians in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan (ID 373)
Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh
Funding: This project is funded by NIHR Global Health Research Centres: Research and Institutional Capacity Strengthening In NCDs (NIHR203250) and the Scottish Funding Council, The University of Edinburgh and GCRF Partnership Fund (PF_48).
Abstract
Aim: Digital health can support healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by overcoming problems of distance, poor infrastructure and the need to provide community practitioners with specialist support. Colleagues from RESPIRE global unit, aim to identify the digital health solutions valuable in their local setting, worked together iteratively to review published literature and online open sources to explore digital health policy, available electricity/IT infrastructure, socio-cultural factors influencing users’ ability to access, adopt and utilise digital health.Methods: We adopted the Implementation and Operation of Mobile Health projects framework and The Extended Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) of Mobile Telephony in rural India to categorise the results. We used open-source statistics(e.g.national/WHO) and local news/articles/government statistics to scope the current status, and systematically searched 6 databases for locally relevant exemplars.
Results: We found 118 studies(2015-2021) and 114 supplementary online news articles and national statistics. Digital health policy was available in all countries, but limited skilled labour, lack of legislation/interoperability support, and interrupted electricity and internet services were limitations. Older patients, women and those living in rural areas were least likely to have access to IT infrastructure. Renewable energy has potential in enabling digital healthcare. Low usage mobile data and voice service packages are relatively affordable options for mHealth in the five countries.
Conclusion: Digital health technology can support healthcare in LMIC communities, but projects need to consider the available infrastructure(especially in rural areas), adopt low-cost options and address the age/gender disparities.
Conflicts of interest: N/A
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