Proliferation, Ingestion, and Interpretation of Health Data in Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICS)

Abstract

Technology will continue to impact the delivery of healthcare across the world. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) digitization has the potential to improve current healthcare provision. To date many digital initiatives have been designed addressing healthcare challenges in LMICs, with the eventual aims of improving both access to and quality of healthcare. For those digital initiatives that have managed to move beyond the initial phase of piloting and experimentation, the next steps involve effective scaling, diffusion and integration within healthcare systems. Examples of such digital initiatives include mobile phone applications, feeding into national-level health information systems for infectious diseases surveillance. Other examples include centralized healthcare data information capacities, including the preparation towards supporting national genome projects. Inevitably, the focus regarding these initiatives has been shifting towards scalability and de-escalation, integration within healthcare ecosystems, and long-term sustainability. This chapter considers the aspects of proliferation, ingestion and interpretation of digital health data in LMICs with many specific examples, showcasing the plurality of the approaches that have been implemented in the field so far.