Employing digital health technologies (DHT) in response to vaccination rejection: Healthcare worker’s views and feedback in Nigeria
Idris Ibrahim Saleh, Aboubakar Issa · Journal of Health Information Research · 2024
World Health Organization (WHO) reported that digital health technologies (DHTs) were used throughout pandemic to prevent diseases and improve vaccination acceptance. Thus; contact tracing tool, surveillance garget, mHealth apps, biosensors, biomarkers, wearable tech, vaccine mapping software, artificial intelligence, telemedicine/telehealth and public communication are among digital health technologies used during pandemic; and healthcare workers are essentially responsible for controlling these technologies. The need to find out through literature whether DHT application improve vaccination acceptance in Nigeria based on healthcare workers views and recommendations. The paper is a documentary research that highlighted the impact of employing digital health technologies (DHTs) in response to pandemic vaccination rejection in Africa, focusing Nigeria as a leading country with abundant human resources and concerned health authorities to improve vaccination acceptance. Herein, this paper set to examine through literature; the concept of digital health technologies, gauge the impact of digital health technologies in developed and developing countries, synthesize digital technology in response to vaccination rejection as well as implementing digital technologies for promoting vaccination. The paper also explored healthcare worker’s views and feedback towards whether or not the application of digital health technology can promote vaccination acceptance in Nigeria. The paper concludes that although challenges are vast, however, the paper concludes that advanced digital health technology is the way forward and be deployed for healthcare workers just as been practiced in developed countries during any pandemic. The paper recommends that, in order to overcome the challenges in the digital health technology with information management of vaccines acceptance, an independent integrated platform model for data-sharing and management be developed, and healthcare workers should adhere to the pandemic guidelines as stated by the world health organization (WHO), as practiced by center for disease control (CDC) among others.