📣📣 eHealth or e-Chaos? A Decade of Digital Health in Africa ! In 2022, researchers mapped 738 digital health interventions across Sub-Saharan Africa. Their findings revealed both incredible innovation and deep systemic gaps. The numbers were striking: ‼️82% of projects focused on service delivery, but only 0.4% strengthened leadership & governance. ‼️92% targeted health workers, while very few empowered patients directly. ‼️More than a third stalled at the pilot stage, never reaching scale. The lesson: Africa doesn’t lack innovation — it lacks coordination, integration, and sustainability. The opportunity now is to: ✅ Invest in solutions that cut across multiple health system building blocks. ✅ Strengthen digital leadership within Ministries of Health. ✅ Stop duplication by aligning with national strategies & global digital goods. ✅ Move beyond proof-of-concept to scale and sustainability. Africa’s digital health future is not in question but whether it’s eHealth or e-Chaos depends on the choices we make today. 💡 3 years on, the question is still timely: How do we transform e-chaos into a truly connected digital health ecosystem for Africa? Share with us ⬇️⬇️ Credit to Derrick Muneene , Humphrey Karamagi and team for the insightful paper https://lnkd.in/duh_HqS4 #DHAInsights
Digital Health Africa - DHA thanks for sharing this insightful write-up highlighting some the issues we face in the digital health community in Africa Transforming e-chaos situation into a connected digital health ecosystem in Africa starts with three things: integration over duplication, patient-centered design over provider-centric models, and strong leadership that drives policies for scale and sustainability. Indeed Innovation alone isn’t enough but when combined alongside coordination is what will unlock impact.
I fully resonate with this analysis. Africa does not lack digital health innovation, but most initiatives remain concentrated on service delivery, leaving deep gaps in leadership, governance, and above all in serving the four pillars of the patient journey: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. This is a point I emphasized in my article “Beyond Access: Why Africa Must Build MedTech Today” 👉 My article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beyond-access-why-africa-must-build-medtech-today-kawtar-ait-el-haj-nm74c?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via Digital health will only deliver real impact when it is integrated, patient-centered, and aligned with national strategies rather than duplicating efforts. The challenge is not innovation, it is coordination, integration, and sustainability. Africa’s digital health future depends on moving from fragmented pilots to connected ecosystems that empower both patients and health systems.
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The irony is striking — Africa has no shortage of innovation pilots, only a shortage of integration pathways. Until digital health is treated as national infrastructure rather than a collection of projects, we’ll keep reinventing the same wheel. The next phase must be about governance, not gadgets.
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1moWe can start by empowering patients alongside health workers, ensuring health literacy keeps pace with technology. Patients are the true frontline of care—especially as monitoring shifts into the home through wearables, remote testing, and mobile platforms. Without the ability to interpret their health data or trust the tools they use, individuals risk being left behind, and innovation could end up widening inequities rather than closing them.