Author summary In this study, we spoke with healthcare workers at a rural hospital in Zimbabwe to understand their experiences using a new digital health record system called Impilo. We discovered that while staff see great value in the system, it makes finding patient information faster, reduces errors, and helps manage medical supplies; its potential is largely untapped. The primary reasons for this are not a rejection of the technology, but rather solvable, real-world problems. Frequent internet outages, a lack of training, and the exhausting burden of having to record the same information on both paper and the digital system are the main hurdles. The findings suggest that for digital health tools to succeed in rural and low-resource settings, the focus must extend beyond the software itself. Success depends on creating a supportive environment, which includes reliable infrastructure like offline functionality, ongoing staff training and support, and a fundamental redesign of workflows to reduce the double burden on healthcare workers. We believe that by addressing these practical barriers, our work can help guide the successful adoption of digital health systems not only in Zimbabwe but in similar communities worldwide, ultimately strengthening healthcare delivery for all.

Originally published by PLOS (Public Library of Science). Read original article