Standing outside a small health clinic in rural Africa you see one white truck pull up and unload contraceptives and family planning commodities. A little while later another arrives with vaccines. And, an hour later, a third stops to drop off antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatments. Each truck, and the supplies within it, are managed by a different program, are loaded at a different warehouse, and use a different logistics system.
Health supply chains like the one I just described are but one example of the fragmentation, silos, and lack of coordination that result in duplication, wastage, and inefficiency in health systems management. These issues slow down the global health community in our collective efforts to achieve national and global health targets.
This measles map has been regularly used in academic and development circles to illustrate the challenges governments face in coordinating health care programs. Illustration: UNICEF/Sean Blaschke.
Digital health programs are not immune. The measles map of Uganda developed by Sean Blaschke at UNICEF is a now famous symbol of the amount of fragmentation and pilotitis that pervades global digital health development. I am always struck by the irony of this map. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), at their heart, are the best connectors. Over the past century, whether telegraph or radio, telephone or smartphone, internet or world wide web—ICTs have brought us closer together with little regard for the barriers of time and space. But, we struggle with how to maximize their power by ensuring these connectors are themselves well connected; and, that the investments that strengthen and support them are aligned, coordinated, and resilient.
Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.
Africa has been the fastest-growing region in the world for mobile access for nearly a decade, and is expected to be the second-largest region for high-speed mobile data by 2020*. This unprecedented growth, and application of a broad spectrum of digital health technologies, is enabling meaningful health impacts like remote diagnosis, treatment, and education. The power of digital health to overcome health system barriers and significantly expand access to quality healthcare is compelling, but only if programs are coordinated and aligned for maximum value and impact.
In my new role as director of PATH’s Digital Health Solutions team, I am excited to leverage digital health across PATH’s health technology platforms and programs, working with stakeholders, partners, and colleagues to create new connected innovations.
Our Digital Health Solutions team is focused on driving strong health outcomes that will improve care and save lives by:
- Working with country stakeholders, donors, and partners to establish and attain shared digital health goals.
- Reducing fragmentation through stronger ICT coordination, strategy, systems architecture, and investment planning.
- Implementing effective and useable data systems that will strengthen country management, accountability, and governance of health systems and services.
One day in the near future, we’ll only need one truck, loaded at a single warehouse, containing a comprehensive, yet tailored, range of supplies, managed by a single logistics system, that will stop at that rural clinic and ensure they have all the resources they need for care. Then we will know we are truly connected.
Health worker transporting a carrier of vaccines in the back of a truck. Photo: PATH/Doune Porter.