Digital Healthcare in Lower-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) – The Takeaway

There simply is no sector that has been unaffected by the global pandemic of the past two years. And while COVID-19 highlighted – and exacerbated – the gaps in many of the world’s economic systems, none were more evident than those existing in healthcare in lower-and middle-income countries (LMICs).

In 2019 – just before the pandemic hit – nearly a third of those countries’ populations lived at least 2 hours from essential healthcare services. Additionally, the ratio of healthcare workers to population was typically below the WHO recommended minimum. The growth in digital technology, however, proved to be the pandemic’s silver lining, and LMICs have taken the opportunity to improve their responses to infectious diseases and transform their primary healthcare systems through the use of digital tools.

This is not an easy transition. Strong, country-led partnerships and nurturing environments are necessary to capture the full potential of digital healthcare. The integration of known, adaptable technologies, user-led design, sustainable business models, and capability building along with rigorous monitoring and evaluation are also key to the success of digital healthcare in LMICs. The application of these success factors could strengthen and broaden the use of digital tools in these countries’ primary healthcare systems. The appropriate governments and their partners could then shape and enrich national healthcare ecosystems that are such an integral component of the healthcare journey and seamless user experiences.

Some examples of digital tool implementation in lower-and middle-income countries are:

Nigeria:

  • Provides a self-managed care platform for users with chronic health issues
  • Implemented a data system to manage public-health-good-supply chain

South Africa:

  • Chatbot app enabled approximately 11 million symptom checks across various sectors during pandemic

Uganda:

  • Mobile app supported healthcare workers in pandemic response and primary care

Kenya:

  • Text messaging enables healthcare payment; connects patients, providers and payers

Rwanda:

  • Wide acceptance of telemedicine tool for users/providers
  • Remote monitoring via text message

Sri Lana:

  • Digital tool launched national response to COVID-19 prior to first case being reported

Vietnam:

  • Suite of digital tools tracks and traces COVID-19

It’s clear that digital tools like the Turn.io’s chatbot app in South Africa, the NCOVI and Bluezone suite in Vietnam, and Nigeria’s SORMAS (an open-source, mobile e-health platform) have been – and continue to be – instrumental in streamlining these lower-and middle-income countries’ responses to the pandemic, and as a result, save lives.

These same principles of digital transformation are having a similar impact on Western nations like the US. For example, consumer adoption of telehealth has skyrocketed (11% of US consumers using telehealth in 2019 to 46% using telehealth in 2021). Pre-COVID, total annual revenues of US telehealth stakeholders were estimated at $3 billion. With the acceleration of alternative care sites and the extension of telehealth, it is predicted that up to $250 billion of the US healthcare spend could be virtualized. Digital and tech-enabled care is the true healthcare wave of the future.

Healthcare stakeholders need to consider how their business models need to change to create value in the future healthcare world, how to rewire their organizations to design them for efficiency and speed, and how to prime their operating processes and technology platforms to maintain a competitive edge.

Such an edge can be seamlessly introduced through partnerships with experienced BPO outsourcing companies. Anexa is an award-winning business process outsourcing company with two decades of expertise and dedicated teams of business process specialists. Whether your needs are customer-centric such as tech support, social media management or marketing campaigns; or non-core business processes that include back-office solutions, Anexa has a team for that. Factor in that we also specialize in bilingual services (English/Spanish), and this is a call that you can’t afford NOT to make.

Have questions? Reach out today for information on how Anexa can support your post-pandemic business processes.