JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital health is well-positioned in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) countries to revolutionize healthcare due, in part, to the increasing mobile phone access and internet connectivity. This paper evaluates the underlying factors which can potentially facilitate or hinder the progress of digital health in Pakistan.

Objective:

The objective of this study, was to identify the current digital health projects/studies being carried out in Pakistan and key stakeholders involved in these initiatives. We also aimed to follow mixed methods strategy and evaluate these projects/studies through SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats) analysis to identify the internal and external factors which can potentially facilitate or hinder the progress of digital health component in Pakistan.

Methods:

This study was conducted through mixed methods and aimed to evaluate digital health projects carried out in the last five years in Pakistan. The qualitative and quantitative data obtained from field surveys was categorized according to the recommended WHO building blocks for health system research and data was analyzed using the SWOT analysis strategy.

Results:

51 digital health projects were studied. 46% of projects were using technology for conducting research, 30% for implementation, and 12% for app development. The health domains targeted were general health (46%), immunization (26%), and diagnostics (10%). Smartphones and devices were used in 55% of the interventions and 59% of projects were being planned to be scaled up. Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) was used in 31%, and 74% of interventions were being evaluated. The barriers faced by developers during the implementation phase were: the inability of the population to use the technology or mobile phones in 21% of the projects, followed by cost in 16 %, and privacy concerns in 12% of the projects.

Conclusions:

We conclude that while Digital health has a promising future in Pakistan, it is still in its infancy at present. However, post Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19)pandemic there is an increase in demand for digital health and implementation of health outcomes following social distancing protocol globally and especially in LMICs setups. Hence, there is a need for active involvement by the public and private organizations to regulate, mobilize, and expand the digital health sector for the improvement of the health system in the country.