Rural digital social innovation for health and social care: A systematic review

Digitalization in the health sector has created numerous opportunities for social innovators and change-makers. However, there is a lack of integrated knowledge of how the latest technological changes have impacted social innovators from marginalized populations living in rural contexts who are often considered the “left-behind” segment in the age of digitalization. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize evidence for rural digital social innovations for health and social care. Drawing on searches from multiple databases we adopted a Context-Process-Outcomes Model to evaluate 25 empirical studies focused on innovations within the healthcare sector (18 studies) and general community level innovations (7 studies). Geographical distance between providers and rural patients was often the context for healthcare innovations, necessitating processes with multiple levels of collaboration, whereas diverse community-specific challenges were usually addressed through grassroots initiatives. Most healthcare and community level innovations had evidence of positive outcomes (e.g., positive impacts on health service utilization or community health). Although digitalization accelerated the scope and reach of social innovations, substantial human investment and rural community engagement remained crucial for success. In conclusion, our application of the Context-Process-Outcomes framework enabled us to aggregate diverse findings and unpack the role of digitalization in rural social innovations.