Digital Health Will Fail Without the Right People to Deliver It

Africa is sitting on a demographic goldmine. With more than 60% of its population under the age of 25, it has the potential to drive a health and economic transformation like no other region in the world. In the race to digitize healthcare, Africa is falling behind, not for lack of talent , but because the people tasked with delivering digital health have not been given the skills to succeed. The digital health workforce gap is growing, and it’s now an urgent barrier to building resilient, future-ready African health systems.

The Workforce Gap Is Holding Us Back

According to the WHO, Africa is projected to face a shortage of 6.1 million healthcare workers by 2030. Layer that with the increasing demands of digital health systems ,electronic medical records, AI diagnostics, telemedicine, and data-driven care and the skills deficit widens.

The Global Digital Health Monitor, which tracks countries’ readiness across six core areas of digital health, consistently shows that “workforce capacity” is the weakest area for African nations. Infrastructure and policies may be in place, but without trained professionals, digital systems stall.

Let’s look at Miriam, a community nurse in rural Kenya, who just received tablets meant to digitize patient records. But there was no training. The internet was unreliable. She didn’t know how to back up files or secure patient data. Within weeks, she returned to using paper. The device went unused. The problem wasn’t the technology , it was the system that failed to prepare her.

Stories like Miriam’s are everywhere. And they expose a truth we must face: without training the workforce, digital tools don’t transform care, they waste resources.

What Is Digital Health Workforce Development?

Digital health workforce development means equipping healthcare professionals to deliver care using modern technologies. It includes everything from basic digital literacy and secure device use, to managing clinical data, delivering virtual care, and leading policy implementation.

Key Aspects of Digital Health Workforce Development:

• Developing Digital Literacy: It’s about providing healthcare workers with the skills to use electronic records, telehealth platforms, and health tech. It also means understanding privacy, security, and ethical use of digital tools.
• Promoting Digital Leadership: Fostering leadership skills among healthcare professionals to drive digital transformation within their organizations and the wider healthcare system.
• Enabling Continuous Learning: Establishing a culture of lifelong learning and providing ongoing support for healthcare professionals to adapt to the evolving digital landscape.
• Bridging the Digital Divide: Ensuring equitable access to digital health education and resources, particularly for underserved populations and communities.
• Adapting to New Roles: Developing new roles and job descriptions that leverage digital technologies to improve healthcare delivery, such as digital health specialists, telehealth coordinators, and data analysts.

Barriers Africa Must Overcome

Despite pockets of innovation, most African countries face systemic challenges. Many health workers haven’t used a digital tool beyond their personal phone. Even where equipment exists, it’s often outdated or unsupported. And when professionals gain new skills, they’re quickly recruited abroad , deepening the local gap. Other gaps include:

• Infrastructural gaps: Weak internet, unreliable power, and outdated equipment limit training access.
• Informal, unequal access: Rural and underserved areas are often excluded from training programs.
• No standardized curriculum: There’s no shared benchmark for what digital competence looks like in healthcare.

Digital Health Capacity Building: A Rising Solution

Across the continent, new models are emerging — bootcamps, mobile platforms, innovation hubs, and fellowships that bypass slow-moving institutions to deliver fast, targeted, and scalable training.

Leading Examples:

• Digital Health Africa: DHA is a trusted platform for educating healthcare professionals, policy makers, and the public. Leading through media campaigns, webinars, reports, bootcamps and articles that empower individuals and communities with the knowledge they need to navigate Africa’s healthcare challenges.
• InnovateHealth Africa (IHA) : Runs digital health fellowships with hands-on projects in AI, mHealth, and data-driven innovations.
• Digital Health Skills for Africa : DHSA offers training, and resources designed to empower professionals to integrate digital solutions seamlessly into their practice. Flexible digital training for mid-career health professionals with modules on governance, digital records, and mobile health.
• Amref Health Africa’s LEAP Platform: Trains Community Health Workers in Kenya via SMS and voice — a low-bandwidth, high-reach model.
• Medics In Tech is a community for healthcare professionals, students interested in Digital Health/Health Tech, and those looking to transition to tech or alternative career paths. It also caters to non-medics building in the medical domain.
• Design for Health by CcHUB : Partnering with public systems to train health workers on data-driven care and digital workflows.
• Africa Digital Epidemiology Innovation Network (ADEIN) A community that provides an opportunity for members to lend their expertise and resources, to collaborate and conduct research for various projects in epidemiology.
• Digital Health Interoperability Network (DHIN): DHIN aims to break down silos, eliminate data fragmentation, and empower healthcare professionals with comprehensive insights for informed decision-making.
• Africa CDC Public Health Informatics Fellowship : The PHI fellowship is a flagship project within Africa CDC’s Digital Transformation Strategy and addresses programmatic goals set within the Framework for Workforce Development.
• Pan African Health Informatics Association : HELINA provides a collaborative platform for research, education, and implementation of health informatics solutions.

These initiatives prove what’s possible, and are promising but piecemeal. They remain fragmented and underfunded. The continent still lacks a unified vision.

Global Models Show the Way

Africa does not need to start from scratch. It can build on proven global approaches:

• Australia: Through the Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health, 36 universities are training nurses, midwives, and allied professionals in data management, cybersecurity, and digital collaboration. The country’s commitment to integrating informatics into both undergraduate curricula and continuous professional development offers a clear blueprint for African nations.
• Europe’s SUSA Project: SUSA is a massive project with 12.4 Million Euros budget in total. The consortium has 12 higher education institutions from 9 European countries. The initiative is set to deliver 46 revamped and integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, complemented by 16 modular learning opportunities for lifelong learning. These innovative educational offerings are designed to produce 6558 graduates and upskill 660 professionals with specialized digital competencies critical to advancing healthcare practices across Europe.
• Canada Health Infoway: A national initiative ensuring that training, safety, and interoperability are standardized across all health systems.

These countries treat digital health workforce development as a national priority, not an afterthought.

The Case for a Continental Workforce Framework

What Africa urgently needs is a standardized, continent-wide framework for digital health workforce development aligned with the WHO’s Digital Health Workforce Development Framework. This should include:

• Defined Core digital competencies integrated into medical, nursing, and public health curricula
• Modular certification programs for frontline and mid-career workers
• Public-private partnerships to fund and co-develop content, offer mentorship, and support job placement
• Gender- and equity-sensitive design to reach rural and underserved populations
• Monitoring systems to track learning outcomes and inform improvement

Bootcamps Are Not Enough — We Need Ecosystems

Bootcamps, fellowships, and CPD courses are important but they’re not the whole solution. What’s needed is an integrated ecosystem of policy, education, finance, and technology. That means:

1. Policy reform: Digital health must be embedded in national human resources for health (HRH) strategies.
2. Curriculum transformation: Update all medical and allied health training to include digital health modules.
3. Industry-academia partnerships: Let the private sector co-create training, offer internships, and ensure job alignment.
4. Mentorship and innovation hubs: Create local labs where skills meet real-world problem solving.
5. Data-driven design: Use data to improve programs and track return on investment.
6. Inclusion: Make sure training programs reach women, people with disabilities, and rural communities.

Measuring What Matters

Though harder to quantify than infrastructure, workforce outcomes must be tracked. A 2021 IFC report found that 70% of African tech bootcamp grads secured jobs within six months. In health, we need similar tracking: Are trained workers retained? Are systems improving? Are patients better served?

What’s at Stake

Without trained workers, we can’t scale digital health. We can’t respond to pandemics. We can’t use data to detect outbreaks. We can’t ensure continuity of care in rural areas. And we certainly can’t build trust in new digital health tools.

Build the Workforce That Will Build the System

Africa has the talent. It has the need. It even has the early models. What it lacks is coordinated, courageous action.

1. To African governments: Create national strategies and fund training programs.
2. To Universities: Embed digital health into medical training curriculum.
3. To Donors and partners: Support long-term, scalable training — not one-off workshops.
4. To Health tech companies: Invest in the talent you need to grow.
5. To Professionals: Advocate for lifelong learning and mentorship opportunities.

Will We Lead or Be Left Behind?

Governments, donors, universities, health institutions — this is the moment.

Will Africa invest in building the health workforce of the future, or remain on the margins of global progress?

What’s stopping your institution from championing digital health training today?

What can you do to drive a continental curriculum forward? Who are your collaborators in this mission?

Build the workforce, or the system will fail.

The choice is ours.

References

• WHO (2023). Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025
• Global Digital Health Monitor. https://digitalhealthmonitor.org/
• WHO (2021). Digital Health Workforce Development Framework
• IFC (2021). The Promise of Digital Skills in Africa
• Amref Health Africa. (2024). Digital Learning Initiatives
• The Australian (2024). Thirty-six universities join new Digital Health Council
• Australian Digital Health Agency. (2024). National Digital Health Strategy Update
• McKinsey & Company. (2020). Reimagining Jobs and Skills in Africa
• SUSA Europe : https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/susa-sustainable-healthcare-education-europe.html
• UNESCO (2020). Women in Tech Africa
• World Bank (2020). Skills Development in Ethiopia
• UNDP (2021). YouthConnekt Africa Report
• GIZ (2020). Ghana Apprenticeship Evaluation

Written By Deborah Onuegbu and Olutola Vivian Awosiku