Digital health literacy in Africa is becoming as essential as a stethoscope. As African health care rapidly adopts electronic health records, telemedicine and mobile health applications, frontline health workers increasingly need digital skills to provide effective care. A new tool developed by Innovate Health Africa is helping them find out exactly where they stand and what to do next.

A Continent Adopting Digital Tools

Africa carries approximately 25% of the world’s disease burden but accounts for only 3% of the global health care workforce, according to McKinsey. To bridge that gap, African health care has increasingly turned to digital health tools. However, this adoption has revealed a critical challenge: many health workers lack the digital literacy needed to use those tools effectively.

Research conducted across sub-Saharan Africa found that low digital literacy levels and limited access to technology represent key challenges for health workers and patients alike when adopting and embracing digital health tools. In Ethiopia, studies found that only around half of health care workers demonstrated sufficient digital literacy levels, with gaps widening in rural and lower-income areas.

The consequences are significant. Addressing the health care worker shortage in sub-Saharan Africa could reduce the region’s disease burden by 35% and increase its GDP by an estimated $22 billion a year, except if those workers are equipped with the skills to operate in an increasingly digital health landscape.

What Is the DHLSAT?

Innovate Health Africa is an organization advancing equitable health care in Africa through innovation, research and workforce capacity development. It developed the Digital Health Literacy Self-Assessment Tool (DHLSAT) to address this gap.

The DHLSAT is a scientifically validated diagnostic framework developed to align with continental health workforce digital readiness efforts. It empowers frontline health care professionals across Africa to precisely map their digital competencies, identify critical literacy gaps and access tailored recommendations to accelerate digital readiness at the frontline.

How It Works

Health care professionals complete the DHLSAT assessment online and receive a personalized digital health literacy profile based on four proficiency tiers: Practitioner, Explorer, Innovator and Expert. Each tier reflects a different level of digital health competency ranging from foundational awareness to advanced innovation capability.

Following the assessment, the tool generates personalized recommendations and scientifically validated insights to guide each user’s digital health literacy growth. Users can download their digital health literacy profile report and share it with employers, recruiters, academic institutions or other relevant organizations.

The DHLSAT covers key areas of digital health competency, including data governance, bioinformatics, digital health’s role in climate change and the broader digital health landscape across Africa, giving health workers a comprehensive view of both their strengths and the areas that require development.

DHLSAT’s Impact

The response from health care professionals who have used the tool reflects its practical value. One user, Dr. Alex O., described the experience as opening a new perspective on developing digital skills. Another user, Kofo Kola O., described the profile as clearly articulating both strengths and weaknesses in a way that felt comforting, exciting and inspiring. A community health worker, Sarah T.S., noted that with Innovate Health Africa’s guidance, her community health project now reaches more than 10,000 people monthly.

Building the Foundation for Digital Readiness

The DHLSAT does not operate alone. Innovate Health Africa works with more than 30 trusted partners in more than six countries and operates across three core portfolios: workforce capacity development, implementation research and innovation. Furthermore, the organization designs and delivers competency-based training in digital health, generates scientific evidence on how digital health is being experienced across African health systems and works with public and private health institutions to design and implement community-shaped digital health solutions.

The DHLSAT fits within a broader strategy to ensure that Africa’s digital health transformation is led by informed, capable health workers instead of being undermined by a skills gap that goes undiagnosed and unaddressed.

Looking Ahead

Africa’s digital health sector is growing rapidly, and the need for a skilled, digitally literate health workforce has never been more necessary. By giving health care professionals the ability to assess their own digital readiness, receive personalized guidance and track their progress, the DHLSAT represents a practical, scalable solution to one of the continent’s most pressing workforce challenges.

– Joy Kohol

Joy is based in Muncie, IN, USA and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash