Digital technologies for health financing in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review protocol

Titelangaben

Pioch, Carolina ; Struckmann, Verena ; Brikci, Nouria ; De Allegri, Manuela ; Emmrich, Julius Valentin ; Knauss, Samuel ; Mathauer, Inke ; Opoku, Daniel ; Quentin, Wilm:
Digital technologies for health financing in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review protocol.
In: BMJ Open. Bd. 14 (2024) Heft 6 . - e080132.
ISSN 2044-6055
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-080132

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Abstract

Universal health coverage (UHC) is a global
priority, ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare
services without financial hardship. Many countries face
challenges in progressing towards UHC. Health financing
is pivotal for advancing UHC by raising revenues, enabling
risk-sharing through pooling of funds and allocating
resources. Digital technologies in the healthcare sector
offer promising opportunities for health systems. In low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), digital
technologies for health financing (DTHF) have gained
traction, supporting these three main functions of health
financing for UHC. As existing information on DTHF in
LMICs is limited, our scoping review aims to provide a
comprehensive overview of DTHF in LMICs. Our objectives
include identifying and describing existing DTHF, exploring
evaluation approaches, examining their positive and
negative effects, and investigating facilitating factors and
barriers to implementation at the national level.

Methods and analysis
Our scoping review follows the six stages proposed by Arksey and O’Malley, further developed by Levac et al and the Joanna Briggs Institute.
The reporting adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items
for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension
for Scoping Reviews framework. Eligibility criteria for
studies reflect the three core elements of the search: (1)
health financing, (2) digital technologies and (3) LMICs. We
search multiple databases, including Medline via PubMed,
EMBASE via Ovid, the Web of Science Core Collection,
CENTRAL via Cochrane and the Global Index Medicus by
the WHO. The extracted information is synthesised from
both quantitative and qualitative studies.

Ethics and dissemination
As our scoping review is based solely on information gathered from previously published studies, documents and publicly available scientific literature, ethical clearance is not required for its conduct. The findings are presented and discussed in a peer-reviewed article, as well as shared at conferences relevant to the topic.