CDHi- Center for Digital Health and Implementation Science’s Post

It was a great experience participating in the Global Digital Health Forum in Kenya. On behalf of the CHDI-University of Gondar and Johns Hopkins University team, I presented our research outputs on access to digital health technologies, socio-economic equity, and its contribution to the coverage of reproductive, maternal, and child health services in Ghana and Rwanda. This research work was part of the Global Digital Health Exemplar project (within the Exemplar in Global Health initiative), and has been led by the University of Gondar and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study intended to identify and document valuable lessons learned from countries that have successfully implemented digital health solutions to transform primary healthcare service delivery. Our colleagues from Johns Hopkins University (Shivani, Lena and Surchi) shared insightful experiences from Finland, Brazil, and India, highlighting successful models of integrating digital health technologies within their primary healthcare systems. The firsthand experiences shared by the in-country teams from Ghana and Rwanda (Dr. Baba, Dr. Attoney, Dr. Hinda, Borris and Christiane) enriched the discussions and provided crucial context. Our results showed improvements in households’ access to digital health technologies, with significant pro-rich and -educated socio-economic inequities, over a decade (2010-2022) in Ghana and Rwanda. The variations in women’s access to digital health technologies contributed to about two-thirds of inequities in the utilization of reproductive, maternal, and child health services in both African countries. In addition to the socio-economic disparities, we are about to finish the geographic lenses of inequities in access to digital health technologies and coverage of reproductive, maternal, and child health services in these African countries.  Grateful to the Principal Investigators of this project (Prof Binyam, Dr. Smisha and Dr. Patty), Betelhem Abebe, Dr. Tesfahun Melese, Admas Abera, and the entire research team.