Supporting the next generation of digital health leaders in Africa
Digital health leaders join a virtual learning session of the Digital Health Applied Leadership Program (DHALP) pilot course for Africa-based participants in June 2022.
Ousmane Ly, MD, is a global public health and digital health consultant who serves as a coach for the Digital Health Applied Leadership Program (DHALP). The DHALP consortium recruited coaches from a wide pool of professionals with expert knowledge of their country’s digital health capacity, system, and stakeholders.
Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Ly.
Digital health interventions are essential to mitigating the main challenges facing health systems in Africa: geographic inaccessibility, low demand for services, delay in care delivery, poor adherence to clinical protocols, and costs borne by individuals. But, as the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned in its guideline on digital health interventions, implementing a digital health intervention requires a shift in current practice or behavior and—therefore—strong government leaders to drive that change.
Global public health and digital health consultant Ousmane Ly, MD, echoes this idea. “After several years of activism in the field of digital health, I realized that technical […] problems are relatively easy to solve, but the challenge with human resources remains, especially in terms of leadership,” he commented.
It was this sentiment that motivated Dr. Ly to serve as a coach for the Digital Health Applied Leadership Program (DHALP). DHALP is an immersive learning program that strives to address these challenges and better equip leaders to ensure the success of national digital health programs. Stewarded by Digital Square, DHALP supports current and emerging leaders in low-resource settings through an integrated digital health curriculum focused on leadership development and technical knowledge. In collaboration with an expert selection committee, Digital Square assembled a consortium led by the University of Global Health Equity and made up of Stanford Center for Health Education, Partners in Health / Inshuti Mu Buzima, the World Bank, TechChange, and the University of Thiès to deliver the pilot program for Africa-based participants.
DHALP’s inaugural cohort currently immersed in the first phase of the program
The first stage of the two-part program is well underway with 58 leaders from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea, Malawi, and Zimbabwe currently taking part in the didactic portion of the program. The participants are actively exploring a range of aspects around digital health, including strategy, system design, implementation, and monitoring. In addition to technical skills, they are gaining an understanding of how to build inclusive teams, articulate a strategy, advocate for resources, and collaborate effectively across departments as well as with donors and other partners. The curriculum is based on gold-standard resources and documentation that foster consistency around digital health terminology and practice, facilitating progress, collaboration, and communication.
The knowledge and skills included in the didactic portion are essential, as many of the participants are government leaders spearheading the implementation of a digital health program or system in their country. However, to bridge the gap between strategy and practice, they aspire to further develop their leadership skills. DHALP’s digital health curriculum is enabling them to better guide their teams to carry out an operational plan by, for example, developing a plan of action, maintaining a common vision, and employing a shared language.
While preparing for the second stage of the program, the capstone project, instructors and coaches are engaging participants to consider real-world applications of their learnings in their own countries. Participants regularly attend virtual, coach-led workshops that facilitate rich conversations and peer-to-peer learning. This dual structure encompassing both didactic learning and real-world applications creates a harmonized approach to digital health capacity enhancement. It helps enable leaders to successfully lead and execute a digital health initiative for health systems strengthening.
Generating impact inside and outside the classroom
In the short time since the program’s inception, we are seeing how the program’s dual structure is benefiting learners and engaging them through different modalities of engagement. Based on an evaluation following the first module, 80 percent of participants reported that more than half or all of the course materials were new to them. As a participant from Guinea commented, “I really appreciate the methodology used to assimilate the concepts [and] the interaction between the participants during the group sessions….The country presentations allow me to better understand the experiences of other countries in the implementation of a national digital health strategy.” A participant from the DRC reflected, “With this course, we have learned to give the best [guidance] that will help the Ministry of Health achieve [its] digital health objectives.”
The ongoing coaching sessions have also facilitated impactful conversations. Through lively discussions, participants have shared success stories and strategic approaches to dealing with challenges, which has helped them learn from best practices in similar contexts.
Preparing for participant capstone projects
As participants prepare for their capstone projects, they have considered various ways to implement their learnings in their digital health work. For example:
Outline the technical equipment needed to implement a connected infrastructure (Cameroon).
Set up a patient index to uniquely identify patients and advance the goal to reach universal coverage (Cameroon).
Improve the methodology for developing the functional specifications of digital tools (Guinea).
Raise awareness among decision-makers of the relevance of emerging digital health trends and technologies (DRC).
From design to implementation, participants’ capstone projects can shift the ways digital health interventions are planned and carried out and have the potential to impact health systems at all levels.
What’s next for DHALP and how you can get involved
One leader at a time, DHALP is establishing a global network of practitioners who are advancing digital health. DHALP graduates will be equipped with the technical grounding needed to successfully develop and implement a digital health strategy. They will be advocates for the policies and resources needed from governments, multilateral institutions, donors, and the private sector to achieve their goals, and they already belong to a peer community where they can continue to exchange information and learn from one another throughout their careers.
“One leader at a time, DHALP is establishing a global network of practitioners who are advancing digital health.”
The success of this program would not have been possible without support from key partners, including the United States Agency for International Development, United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and US President’s Malaria Initiative. Also essential to the program was early funding from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, commissioning by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-financing from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and implementation by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Digital Square, an initiative of PATH, manages the partners, convenes the donors, and provides technical support and oversight.
Digital Square will continue to harness the potential of current and future digital health leaders through DHALP and plans to scale the program in other regions across Africa and Asia. We will also conduct an external evaluation that will support iterations and updates for future cohorts. This is an exciting time in digital health, and multiple opportunities exist to support the next cohort of DHALP learners and enhance their capacity as local leaders to transform the communities in which they live.
If you are interested in partnering with Digital Square and DHALP or would like to learn more, please contact Lauren Wall at lwall@path.org.