Digital Health in LLMICs: Current and future technological developments with the potential to improve health outcomes in low- and lower-middle income countries

Pathways for Prosperity in collaboration with Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government published background paper on digital health in low- and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs). The study, which is part of a series of background papers on technological change and inclusive development, looks at how technological developments could be used to alleviate high disease burden conditions in LLMICs. It provides recommendations driven from the interviews conducted to 18 experts for policymakers, donors, international bodies, development agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders working at the local, national, and international levels. The paper focuses on some applications of digital health technologies. It also pinpoints the overarching challenges and risks that hamper the effective implementation of these applications that vary from: infrastructure; technical and design challenges; skills, behaviour and organisational challenges; governance and regulation; and investment and incentives. Finally, it maps out the potential first order and second order consequences of three key trends: universal Internet access, proliferation of data ubiquitous, and powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) future non-tech trends.