Why Technology Isn ’t Always the Answer in Global Health

October 04, 2018We were so excited by the flashiness of the tools, we forgot our goal —to lower hypertension in Africa.After attendingSwitchpoint 2018 and hearing about people who are using drones to deliver medications for snake bites to remote areas of the Amazon, cellphones to diagnose eye diseases, and paper microscopes to detect bacteria in water, I was pumped. I was excited by the opportunities to use digital tools for health.As I started my fellowship atIntraHealth International, I was excited to implement digital health tools, eager to find a solution to the high and growing prevalence of hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa. There are many drivers of hypertension, including lack of physical activity, poor diet, and tobacco and alcohol use. Perhaps one of these could be a target for an intervention.We had this idea …Could activity trackers be an answer?Everyone around me uses them —friends, brothers, supervisors, gym mates, even me. There is a sizeable body ofliterature on using activity trackers to increase a person ’s overall steps and lead to positive health outcomes, such as a decrease in blood pressure and weight loss. So we thought this might be a solution to the high prevalence of hypertension in Africa. And we were thrilled to implement the activity tracker trend that has taken over the US.I started researching. Could activity trackers be a solution?We believed that if we could give everyone in our study activity trackers and education, most of them woul...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news