IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v319y2023ics0277953622006128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital diagnostics from Tanzania: Beyond mere technological fixing?

Author

Listed:
  • Neumark, Tom

Abstract

Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being put in minimal, ‘technological fixes’ driven by the market for problems that have intractable social determinants. This article focusses on a group of apparent technological fixers, Tanzanian data and computer scientists designing and building various forms of digital diagnostics. It argues that these diagnostics, and the social forms they are creating, need to be understood differently than as purely attenuated, market-driven technological solutions for specific problems. Instead, they represent ambitious efforts to create new and superior healthcare futures from Tanzania, that speak to broader systems as much as abstract and narrow technical processes, and to the public good as much as the private.

Suggested Citation

  • Neumark, Tom, 2023. "Digital diagnostics from Tanzania: Beyond mere technological fixing?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:319:y:2023:i:c:s0277953622006128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622006128
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115306?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kent Buse & Andrew Harmer, 2004. "Power to the Partners?: The politics of public-private health partnerships," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 47(2), pages 49-56, June.
    2. Tom Neumark & Ruth J. Prince, 2021. "Digital Health in East Africa: Innovation, Experimentation and the Market," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S6), pages 65-74, July.
    3. Hampshire, Kate & Mwase-Vuma, Tawonga & Alemu, Kassahun & Abane, Albert & Munthali, Alister & Awoke, Tadesse & Mariwah, Simon & Chamdimba, Elita & Owusu, Samuel Asiedu & Robson, Elsbeth & Castelli, Mi, 2021. "Informal mhealth at scale in Africa: Opportunities and challenges," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Hampshire, Kate & Porter, Gina & Owusu, Samuel Asiedu & Mariwah, Simon & Abane, Albert & Robson, Elsbeth & Munthali, Alister & DeLannoy, Ariane & Bango, Andisiwe & Gunguluza, Nwabisa & Milner, James, 2015. "Informal m-health: How are young people using mobile phones to bridge healthcare gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 90-99.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edgar Cambaza, 2023. "The Role of FinTech in Sustainable Healthcare Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Narrative Review," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Rutger Daems, PhD & Edith Maes, DBA, 2014. "Global Health Partnerships: Governance, Leadership, and Organizational Reform," Working Papers 2014/01, Maastricht School of Management.
    3. Markus Fraundorfer, 2016. "How to Confront the Threat of Ebola? Arguing for Reinforced Efforts to Promote Transnational Solidarity," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(3), pages 340-350, September.
    4. Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, 2011. "Global Governance," Chapters, in: Jonathan Michie (ed.), The Handbook of Globalisation, Second Edition, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Alam, Mohammad Zahedul & Hu, Wang & Kaium, Md Abdul & Hoque, Md Rakibul & Alam, Mirza Mohammad Didarul, 2020. "Understanding the determinants of mHealth apps adoption in Bangladesh: A SEM-Neural network approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    6. Haenssgen, Marco J. & Charoenboon, Nutcha & Zanello, Giacomo, 2021. "You’ve got a friend in me: How social networks and mobile phones facilitate healthcare access among marginalised groups in rural Thailand and Lao PDR," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Rudra P. Pradhan & Mak B. Arvin & John H. Hall & Sara E. Bennett, 2018. "Mobile telephony, economic growth, financial development, foreign direct investment, and imports of ICT goods: the case of the G-20 countries," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(2), pages 279-310, June.
    8. Haenssgen, Marco J. & Ariana, Proochista, 2017. "The Social Implications of Technology Diffusion: Uncovering the Unintended Consequences of People’s Health-Related Mobile Phone Use in Rural India and China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 286-304.
    9. Park, June & Chung, Eunbin, 2021. "Learning from past pandemic governance: Early response and Public-Private Partnerships in testing of COVID-19 in South Korea," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Buse, Kent & Harmer, Andrew M., 2007. "Seven habits of highly effective global public-private health partnerships: Practice and potential," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 259-271, January.
    11. Anstey Watkins, Jocelyn Olivia Todd & Goudge, Jane & Gómez-Olivé, Francesc Xavier & Griffiths, Frances, 2018. "Mobile phone use among patients and health workers to enhance primary healthcare: A qualitative study in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 139-147.
    12. Sandberg, Kristin Ingstad & Bjune, Gunnar, 2007. "The politics of global immunization initiatives: Can we learn from research on global environmental issues?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 89-100, November.
    13. Patricia Abbott & Tanima Banerjee & Amparo Clara Aruquipa Yujra & Boqin Xie & John Piette, 2018. "Exploring chronic disease in Bolivia: A cross-sectional study in La Paz," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Tom Neumark & Ruth J. Prince, 2021. "Digital Health in East Africa: Innovation, Experimentation and the Market," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S6), pages 65-74, July.
    15. Perez, Marybel & von Schnurbein, Georg & Gehringer, Theresa, 2022. "Mitigating health policy fragmentation through interlocks. The networks between American and Swiss public-private partnerships," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(11), pages 1163-1172.
    16. Bärnreuther, Sandra, 2023. "Disrupting healthcare? Entrepreneurship as an “innovative” financing mechanism in India's primary care sector," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    17. Libiao Bai & Yi Li & Qiang Du & Yadan Xu, 2017. "A Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Sustainability Risk Evaluation of PPP Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, October.
    18. Haenssgen, Marco J., 2018. "The struggle for digital inclusion: Phones, healthcare, and marginalisation in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 358-374.
    19. Desmond McNeill, 2023. "The World Economic Forum: An unaccountable force in global health governance?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(5), pages 782-789, November.
    20. Pedro Pita Barros & Xavier Martínez-Giralt, 2006. "Contractual design and public-private parternships for hospitals," Working Papers 292, Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:319:y:2023:i:c:s0277953622006128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.