Africa’s Digital Health Revolution: The Digital Fit-Viability Model to Move From Innovation to Scaled Implementation

Digital innovations hold immense potential to transform health care delivery, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where financial, geographical, and infrastructural constraints continue to hinder progress toward universal health care delivery. Although a growing health tech sector offers creative solutions, few digital health interventions reach scaled implementation. In this paper, we present the digital fit/viability model-an adapted determinant framework to describe facilitators and barriers to moving from digital tools to integrated digital health implementation. We then use this model to describe the specific challenges and recommended solutions when developing digital health tools for health systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Published
2025-10-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/63495
Primary Topic
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Africa’s Digital Health Revolution: The Digital Fit-Viability Model to Move From Innovation to Scaled Implementation

Milind Tambe, Bethany Hedt‐Gauthier, Afra Jiwa, C. O’Brien et al.
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
article

Africa’s Digital Health Revolution: The Digital Fit-Viability Model to Move From Innovation to Scaled Implementation

Milind Tambe, Bethany Hedt‐Gauthier, Afra Jiwa, C. O’Brien, Tobi Olatunji, Niclas Boehmer, R. Fletcher, Kate Isoken Obayagbona, Chris Opoku Fofie, Adeline A. Boatin, Antony Ngatia, Karim Benali, Sangu Delle, Patrick Emedom-Nnamdi
article en

Abstract

Digital innovations hold immense potential to transform health care delivery, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where financial, geographical, and infrastructural constraints continue to hinder progress toward universal health care delivery. Although a growing health tech sector offers creative solutions, few digital health interventions reach scaled implementation. In this paper, we present the digital fit/viability model-an adapted determinant framework to describe facilitators and barriers to moving from digital tools to integrated digital health implementation. We then use this model to describe the specific challenges and recommended solutions when developing digital health tools for health systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Journal of Medical Internet ResearchVol. 28
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US), Harvard University (US), Hasso Plattner Institute (DE), University of Potsdam (DE), Methodist University College Ghana (GH), Kenya Methodist University (KE), Massachusetts General Hospital (US), Cancer Research And Biostatistics (US), iNtRON (South Korea) (KR), Harvard Global Health Institute (US), Ghana Health Service (GH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 77%
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.