How Can eHealth Help the Poorest (Part 3, Systems and Education)

The third and final cluster focuses on systems and education. Along with the optimism in the responses, there is a strong dose of caution – even an implicit warning that poorly designed eHealth interventions may do more harm than good. While evaluating eHealth interventions has been the subject of some discussion, the problem of doing so effectively is still far from solved.  This holds even more true for eHealth interventions in low-resource settings, with difficult field conditions and vulnerable populations.

If the challenges of cross-cultural evaluation can be overcome, there are opportunities to share solutions globally. It could be worth compiling applications in which eHealth can benefit the poorest, along with cases of success and failure, into a universally accessible database from which all can learn – building on the spirit of existing compilations such as Millions Saved for public health.

Eva Harris, PhD, Professor, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley (USA) and Founder and President, Sustainable Sciences Institute (Nicaragua and USA), and Heather Zornetzer, Program Director, ICT for Health, Sustainable Sciences Institute (Nicaragua and USA)