Digital Healthcare: Technologies, Technical and Design Challenges

Abstract

The advancement of digital technologies in healthcare is not a new phenomenon, however it was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic when healthcare needs across all settings forced institutions to consider the inclusion of digital health applications in their routine operations. The need for digital healthcare applications to deliver solutions is greatest in LMICs and will continue to be so in the near future. This chapter presents an overview of the technologies driving the digital transformation of healthcare, including Internet of Things, Blockchain, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The challenges to the implementation of digital healthcare applications are also presented (infrastructure, human capital and data quality), with a particular focus on the design and evaluation aspects.