Digital Health Exemplars: Service Delivery Transformation Through Digital Innovation

Despite increases in primary healthcare (PHC) investments globally, access to and use of PHC services remains challenging. Digitization can advance PHC systems in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries, and various contextual and implementation factors related to digital governance, training of healthcare workers, interoperability of digital systems, and human-centered design, among others, are critical to effective scale and the effectiveness of digital health interventions (DHIs). The Digital Health Exemplars, a collaboration between the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation (CGDHI) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, eHealth Lab Ethiopia at the University of Gondar, and other partners, aims to evaluate the successful strategies that can advance the integration of digital into PHC systems for improved downstream population-level health outcomes for 5 high-performing countries (India, Brazil, Rwanda, Ghana, and Finland) identified by the project. Following a comprehensive theory of change and a set of primary research objectives, the project will undertake a mixed-methods study design to better understand the digital healthcare landscape in each Exemplar country, as well as the specific digital health interventions and their health impact at national and sub-national levels. Exemplar country inception workshops are underway, and primary and secondary data collection activities will begin in March-May of 2024. The overall study design as well as any potential pre-liminary data from select countries will be ready for presentation by the conference date.