COVID-19 and beyond: Use of digital technology for pandemic response in Africa

Maharana, Adyasha; Amutorine, Morine; Sengeh, Moinina David; Nsoesie, Elaine O.

doi:10.1016/j.sciaf.2021.e01041

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Small businesses have been the most affected by the pandemic, supply and demand facing considerable decline (Sreenivasan & Suresh, 2021;Kuckertz et al, 2020). By moving the social life into the digital environment, digital social innovation became a new norm that stimulated entrepreneurs, especially those in emerging economies, to find new opportunities, partnerships and adopt robust strategies to achieve sustainability (Kamaludin et al, 2021;Markovic et al, 2021;Maharana et al, 2021;Scheidgen et al, 2021). Apart from adopting innovation and transforming business models, some findings suggest that government support is also a key pillar in boosting economy and providing strategic support programs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the COVID-19 pandemic impact on innovation and entrepreneurship – Review and evidence from Global Innovation Index

Onea

2022

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

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The COVID-19 pandemic was an unparalleled crisis that has affected businesses, individuals, institutions, and governments in multiple ways. This paper comes to critically analyze the impact of the pandemic on entrepreneurship and innovation. Studies show that crises can also be perceived as opportunities for continuing creating new solutions and adopting innovative ways of doing business. In this sense, the present paper analyzes the current state of the art in terms of the pandemic impact on small and medium enterprises and the innovation status and proposes a systematic literature review and comparative analysis to depict the situation in Romania. For the purposes of this research, the data from the Global Innovation Index Reports is being used. The results show significant positive and negative changes in three main categories, namely business sophistication, infrastructure, knowledge & technology output. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by summarizing the main findings from multiple publications and proposes recommendations for policymakers and institutions to provide the corresponding framework so that entrepreneurs could benefit from innovation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the COVID-19 pandemic impact on innovation and entrepreneurship – Review and evidence from Global Innovation Index

Onea

2022

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

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“…Early in the pandemic, technology adoption within Africa reportedly addressed three categories of action (disease prevention, disease surveillance, and supply management) in order to manage or monitor patients and provide accurate COVID-19 information [ 42 ]. These efforts were both sovereign (national, sub-national, and non-governmental organisations), as well as international agency-initiated (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of these approaches were noted to have challenges and limitations, extending from fundamental regulatory, cultural, and interoperability issues, through cost and digital divide issues, to security and trust issues. Within the digital health-COVID-19 literature, the desire to maintain and maximise the use of technology solutions into the future is a common theme [ 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey of Telemedicine Use by Doctors in District Hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Morris

Scott

Mars

2022

IJERPH

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There is anecdotal evidence of informal telemedicine activity in KwaZulu-Natal (KZ-N), South Africa. Aim: To determine the current extent of telemedicine in district hospitals in KZ-N; the range of clinical activities and technologies used; additional services needed; current knowledge and practice regarding legal, ethical, and regulatory issues; and the need to formalise telemedicine activities. Method: A cross-sectional survey of telemedicine use by 143 doctors working at 22 District hospitals in KZ-N. Results: Most doctors (96%) participated in some form of telemedicine across a spectrum of disciplines, but more than half did not consider their activities to constitute telemedicine. To meet their needs, doctors have started their own informal services with colleagues, using mostly instant messaging and chat groups (WhatsApp). Some doctors indicated the need to formalise these services and establish additional services. Few doctors were aware of the national telemedicine guidelines and the required written informed consent for telemedicine was seldom obtained. This could have serious legal, regulatory, and ethical implications. Conclusions: Practical clinical and technical guidelines and standard operating procedures need to be developed with the active participation of the clinical workforce. These should encourage innovation and greater use of telemedicine, including the use of instant messaging apps.

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“…Different studies have different classifications of them. There are also some similar concepts such as “industrial 4.0 technologies” (Rudrapati, 2022), “disruptive technologies” (Abdel-Basset et al, 2021), “digital technologies” (Maharana et al, 2021), “Information and Communications Technologies” (Mishna et al, 2021), or “modern technologies” (Kumar et al, 2020). These technologies tend to be more automated, intelligent, interconnected, and have a higher frequency of iteration, which are the critical tools for increasing the smartness of cities (Rudrapati, 2022; Zhu et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Except for the type of technologies, most perspectives can be summarized as scales, stages, and targets. From the perspective of scales, numerous comparative studies have been conducted on a single scale of global, country, district, city, or community, such as comparisons between China and the western countries (Kummitha, 2020); comparisons among different African countries (Maharana et al, 2021); comparisons among different cities in China (Yang and Chong, 2021); and case study of smart technologies in pandemic response in community (Begay et al, 2021; Bricout et al, 2021; Wu et al, 2021). From the perspective of stages, the majority of studies have followed WHO’s recommendation to divide stages according to the pandemic process, such as identification, isolation, and quarantine (Kummitha, 2020), planning and tracking, screening for infection, contact tracing, quarantine and self-isolation, and clinical management (Whitelaw et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart technologies for fighting against pandemics: Observations from China during COVID-19

Long

2022

Transactions in Urban Data, Science, and Technology

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In recent years, pandemics have become one of the most significant challenges due to their huge socio-economic impacts. Fortunately, smart technologies have provided new ideas to fight against them. Many studies have focused on analyzing particular technologies applied in pandemics, but few have systematically discussed the difference and the relationship among multiple perspectives. China is well represented in the development of technologies and pandemic responses. Therefore, this paper uses China’s response to COVID-19 as an empirical study to systematically review the application of smart technologies and build a case base from multiple perspectives. A total of 1,102 cases from 14 technologies were collected from January 2020 to June 2020 after screening, and a series of analyses were conducted in terms of types, scales, stages, and targets. The result shows various subjects participated in pandemic responses using smart technologies. General technologies such as Big Data and Mobile Internet are most widely used. Besides, most technologies are used on the country or district/city scales and focus on the prevention and control of pandemics. There are significant differences in the penetration of technologies among different perspectives. We hope to provide a reference for applying smart technologies against pandemics in the future.

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COVID-19 and beyond: Use of digital technology for pandemic response in Africa

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

Exploring the COVID-19 pandemic impact on innovation and entrepreneurship – Review and evidence from Global Innovation Index

Exploring the COVID-19 pandemic impact on innovation and entrepreneurship – Review and evidence from Global Innovation Index

A Survey of Telemedicine Use by Doctors in District Hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Smart technologies for fighting against pandemics: Observations from China during COVID-19

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