Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 19, 2021
Date Accepted: Apr 21, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: May 5, 2022
Examining the Implementation of Digital Health to Strengthen COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Recovery and Scale up Equitable Vaccine Access in African Countries
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the globe taking the lives of millions of individuals. Accordingly, this pandemic has caused a shift in conversations surrounding the burden of diseases worldwide, welcoming insights from multidisciplinary fields including digital health and artificial intelligence (AI). Africa faces a heavy disease burden that exacerbates the current COVID-19 pandemic and limits the scope of public health preparedness, response, containment, and case management. Herein, we examined the potential impact of transformative digital health technologies in mitigating this global health crisis in African countries. Furthermore, we proposed recommendations for scaling up digital health technologies and AI-based platforms to tackle the pandemic and enable equitable vaccine access. Challenges related to the pandemic are numerous. Rapid response and management strategies i.e. contact tracing, case surveillance, diagnostic testing intensity, and most recently vaccine distribution mapping can overwhelm the healthcare delivery system that is fragile. Although challenges are vast, the application of digital health technologies can play an essential role in achieving a sustainable resilient recovery and building back better. It is plausible that African nations are better equipped to rapidly identify, diagnose, and manage infected individuals for COVID-19, other diseases, future outbreaks, and pandemics.
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