African leaders should seize digital health innovation as a potential revolution that could transform the equity challenges, according to this year's winner of the Jakes Gerwel Award in Public Health, Dr Landry Tsague Dongmo.
"African governments should invest in reliable internet connectivity and infrastructure to ensure seamless access to digital health platforms and services and overcome geographical barriers for populations in remote areas. Reducing the cost of internet and mobile devices should be part of a whole-of-government policy dialogue as it will benefit the whole-of-society," he said.
Dr Tsague called for policymakers to build the legal instruments that will enable digital innovations to thrive while continuously balancing the urge to tap into the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital health solutions and the imperative of preserving the population against the potential risks of the wrong use of the technology.
"AI-powered digital health solutions are here to augment humanity's capabilities as we collectively face and overcome complex, interconnected challenges. AI-powered solutions can accelerate the local development and manufacturing of vaccines and medicines in Africa. Africa should lead the adoption and adaptation of AI-powered innovations with its young innovators and vibrant private sector to transform the public health landscape on the continent and achieve greater health sovereignty," emphasised Dr Tsague.
He said access to the internet through mobile phones has changed how people engage with health issues. "The young people will likely listen to a social media influencer. They have millions of followers – more than any public health official, talking about health issues and engaging with a public health professional through their social media platform. We see live and video recordings on Facebook, X, and YouTube as the new normal for health education. Further, combining in-person community-based peer-to-peer education with virtual activation and engagement makes a difference in African health programmes such as the African Union Bingwa Initiative."
Digital health innovation is already augmenting the capacity of national health systems to detect signals of public health events of concern or diagnose disease early with high accuracy.
Dr Tsague said digital health allowed real-time reporting and disseminating of educational information during an outbreak, such as Ebola and cholera and the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital health platforms are used to transmit and store data related to public health events as soon as they are detected at the primary healthcare level, and inform timely interventions before the outbreaks become large epidemics.
"AI can power the two-way interactions with the community to capture real-time feedback and effectively tailor messaging or field interventions. Digital health innovation carries huge potential in preventing and managing non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Behavioural change interventions could be tailored for every individual to achieve desirable lifestyle changes," Dr Tsague explained.
"Lastly, with the use of software as medical devices to read X-ray and other image-based diagnostics, the capacity to timely diagnose disease and with accuracy will be augmented even where there are not enough radiologists. AI-power technology could become a game-changer for equity in access to quality of care in Africa,” Dr Tsague concluded.
