Harnessing Artificial Intelligence and mobile health applications to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in resource-limited settings: An evidence-based analysis from Sub-Saharan Africa

Maternal and neonatal deaths rate in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be among the highest in the world owing to myriad reasons-factors that include lack of access to healthcare, understaffed health systems, and infrastructural problems. The recently arrived digital innovations, namely, Artificial Intelligence and mobile health, offer an almost revolutionary opportunity to tackle such problems. This article synthesizes evidence to analyze deployments of AI and mHealth technology to improve maternal and neonatal health in sub-Saharan African resource-challenged settings. Using evidence from recent empirical studies and systematic reviews, it explores avenues through which AI has been integrated into diagnostics, decision support systems, predictive analytics, and remote monitoring, while the mHealth applications assist in health education, prenatal care, referral management, and postnatal follow-up. From the studied literature, these technologies are observed to facilitate early complication detection and increase compliance with clinical guidelines, therefore aiding quality healthcare in marginalized communities. While there is promise in these areas, infrastructural issues, digital literacy, data privacy, and policy integration continue to be a concern. This paper also considers the choice of methodologies for assessing the efficacy of digital interventions and suggests frameworks for the sustainable scale-up of these innovations. Ultimately, it is intended to highlight the important role that AI and mHealth technologies could play in enhancing the speed of achievement to Sustainable Development Goal 3: ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages. Targeted policy support; multi-sector collaborations; and grants for digital infrastructure development will be key for unlocking the full potential of these technologies in saving maternal and neonatal lives across sub-Saharan Africa.