Digital Health
The adoption of digital health tools has increased in many contexts in recent years. However, the application of these technologies is still lagging behind humanitarian contexts and other low-resource settings, despite growing unmet health needs in these settings. In the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit, we work to support and promote the use of digital tools in – and especially developed for – the contexts MSF works in.
What is digital health?
Digital health is a broad multidisciplinary field which includes new ways of working at the intersection of technology and healthcare. Under its umbrella, digital health includes an ecosystem of telemedicine tools, health information technologies, and patient support apps for behaviour change also known as digital therapeutics (DTx).
While digital health tools hold great promise and can help us overcome many barriers, they also pose new challenges. These include fair and safe handling of health data, ensuring that the promise of better care also reaches those who lack access to smart devices, and that solutions are designed to work optimally also in low-bandwidth settings. Inadvertently, efforts to improve access to digital health tools risk exacerbating the digital divide, as some people either cannot or prefers not to use digital solutions. Therefore, complementary efforts for groups who do not benefit from digital solutions should be explored in tandem with new digital solutions.
How does the SIU work in this domain?
We view digital health interventions as ways to enhance and complement healthcare services, not as a replacement of existing health systems. As such, we consider digital health tools to be one component in a multipronged approach to address issues related to lack of access to essential healthcare.
The MSF Sweden Innovation Unit’s digital health work focuses on patient support applications, also called Digital Therapeutics (see the project spotlight below). Regardless of the tool, we are advocates of the importance to design digital solutions as well as the approach for piloting and implementing these together with patients, communities, clinicians, health system representatives, technical developers, and others.
Project spotlight – Digital Therapeutics for Diabetes
One of the determinants of poor outcomes for patients with diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2) is low adherence to medication, hence there is a clear need in many settings where MSF works for scalable solutions that can support NCD patients through their treatment journey.
The Digital Therapeutic (DTx) for Diabetes case, initially launched by the SIU in 2021, aims to both deliver a patient support intervention and improve MSF’s understanding of how DTx may supplement our current practices. The smartphone app is currently being developed and will be piloted for patients undergoing treatment in MSF clinics in the Bekka Region, Lebanon, in 2023/2024. The application will offer patient education videos, medication adherence support, and counselling services.
Learn more about Digital Health
5 Digital Health Interventions by Médecins Sans Frontières
Digital health interventions are not a replacement of existing health systems, but they can enhance healthcare services. In this article, we take a closer look at five digital health interventions deployed across MSF.
Introduction to Digital Therapeutics (DTx) in humanitarian settings
Digital therapeutics are patient support platforms used to encourage long-term behaviour change to manage the symptoms of chronic conditions such as mental health disorders, diabetes or hypertension.
How Digital Health can accelerate access to diabetes care
Diabetes is a major element of the global non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemic. In close collaboration with patients in Lebanon and colleagues in Geneva, we are developing a patient support app to help people with diabetes manage their contrition.