Feasibility and acceptability of open source for local manufacture of digital diagnostics and routine use in the health system: Exploring the views of Ghanaian stakeholders

Medical digital devices are used for diagnosing, monitoring, or improving patient’s health (Browning, 2014). These digital devices include electro-medical equipment and related software, such as microscopes, cardiovascular appliances, prosthetics, and diagnostics kits. In Ghana, medical equipment, diagnostic and surgical devices are generally not locally manufactured, but mostly imported. The Ghana Food & Drugs Authority and Standards Board have put in place, guidelines on procedures and requirements for their registration and use. There are however challenges encountered with the use of these diagnostics devices. These challenges include frequent breakdown along with unavailability of spare parts and skilled professionals to repair and maintain them. Furthermore, spare parts tend to be expensive, making it challenging for health institutions to keep up with ensuring the consistent availability of diagnostics. As a result, equipment are often unavailable for use for long periods of time and may sometimes have to be abandoned completely. This situation negatively affects the delivery of quality of health care and services rendered to patients.

The local manufacture of diagnostic equipment using open-source hardware is likely to lead to increase in availability of equipment, spare parts and requisite skill to repair them when they break down. Local engineers could produce the devices to suit the local context and climate, e.g building in resilience to power outages or working with locally available resources. There have however been concerns about local production of digital medical devices and their compliance with international standards in recent past. Issues surrounding the accuracy and reliability of results from locally manufactured medical devices have also been raised. There is limited information about how acceptable locally manufactured diagnostics will be within the health sector in Ghana and how feasible their introduction for use will be. The study therefore set out to explore factors that are likely to promote or hinder the uptake of locally manufactured digital diagnostics by health providers within Ghana. The knowledge of the promoting or hindering factors will contribute to an understanding of the different approaches needed for effective implementation that should inform local and international policy.

Project information

Health Workforce
Information Systems
Social Science

May 2020 — Oct 2021

$171,974

Ghana