Technological and Task-Shifting Interventions to Mitigate Health Worker Shortages in Assam: Feasibility and Acceptability
Main Article Content
Abstract
A shortage of the health workforce is one of the most critical challenges to health systems around the world and particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India. According to the World Health Organization, a global shortfall of nearly 10 million health..
workers is estimated by 2030. Many Indian states suffer from chronic staff shortages of both doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
Assam, a northeastern state of India, faces this challenge, as people residing in remote locations with rugged terrain do not have proper access to health care. It is also observed that, due to geographical barriers and poor healthcare infrastructure, many professionals relocate to places with better options. This creates a shortage of health care workers that affects in delivering primary health care services to the people.
This work tries to address the shortage of health care workers in Assam by exploring the potential and acceptability of three complementary approaches:
- i) Use of technology (telemedicine, mobile health apps, electronic Health Records and artificial intelligence)
- ii) Task-shifting from doctors to nurses to community health workers
iii) Digital health communication using trained Social Media Health Influencers or SMHIs.
We used secondary data from Scopus, PubMed, ResearchGate, Elsevier and WHO reports, National Health Systems Resource Centre and Directorate of Economics & Statistics, 2023 in this article to collect information to support our study. Reviews of the available evidence show that digital technologies increase access to care, aid in clinical decision-making, task shifting maintains primary health care delivery where there is a dearth of doctors and trained SMHIs lead to better-informed public. However, infrastructural challenges, low digital literacy, poor training and information risks still stand in the way.
The findings stress the importance of a wide, holistic system of intervention in terms of the deployment of technology, the efficient use of human resources, as well as regulated digital health, to enhance health service provisions in Assam.
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