Paul Crook argues that digital engagement—not roads alone—will close the care gap.
The “last mile” is more than roads. Digital engagement, falling hardware costs, and private-sector ingenuity are reshaping how care reaches communities once considered out of reach.
The phrase “last mile” misleads many into thinking only physical infrastructure blocks access. In reality, information, financing, and trusted relationships are equally critical.
Traditional outreach efforts helped, but digital engagement created the real shift, enabling services to travel faster than vehicles ever could.
Global actors often claim digitalization, yet the hard work is powered by private innovators responding to lower hardware costs and ubiquitous mobile networks.
These market forces invite fresh thinking, opening new ways to earn a living while solving entrenched health challenges.
Digitalization makes it affordable to deliver diverse services, freeing people from geographical barriers and challenging underinvestment in comprehensive health systems.
It forces a re-examination of who delivers care, how knowledge is shared, and which structures must evolve to support a continuum that includes prevention and promotion.
Cash transfer programs and mobile money illustrate both the promise and complexity of digital transformation. In East Africa, distributions can be mistaken for robust social protection.
For health, digital tools won’t perform surgery, but they dramatically enhance promotive and preventive care—equipping people to take responsibility for wellbeing and address the avoidable.
“Digital health won’t deliver open-heart surgery, but it can change promotive and preventive care so communities own their wellbeing.”
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