Problem Statements

1. Haseena Begum is a 21-year-old resident residing in makeshift tents on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has a 4-month-old daughter with whom she fled after floods submerged their village underwater. She tearfully recalls the horrendous experience of the journey- how they were forced to drink contaminated flood water. Her daughter constantly has dysentery and hasn't been vaccinated. Her invalid mother-in-law remains bedridden- unable to procure her hypertension medications. Unclean toilets and a lack of menstrual hygiene products force girls and women in the area to utilize old rags. Haseena hopes to return to her humble village soon, as the encampment is ridden with infectious diseases. In such dire humanitarian conditions, access to medical care becomes non-negotiable, especially for vulnerable groups such as pregnant and nursing women, young children, teenage girls, and the elderly. How can digital health technologies be effectively harnessed to support healthcare systems and deliver critical medical assistance during disasters?



Themes: Climate change, Humanitarian crisis, Maternal and Child health, Sexual and Reproductive health, Social and Gender dynamics , Emerging technology, Capacity building, Community mobilization, 360° campaigns.



2. Ramesh is an 18-year-old boy from Bihar studying in Bangalore. He finds his new city life overwhelming and struggles to adjust to the city culture. Faced with the pressure to do well in academics and the burden of isolation in the city, he is constantly plagued with anxiety and panic attacks. He doesn't feel comfortable talking about his mental health with his friends and doesn't have the funds for counseling. Feeling dejected, he starts looking into online resources and content to find something to help him (Haque and Rubya, 2023).
   
   As more and more young people turn to digital mental health resources, what are some tools or innovations that can cater to these groups? And how do we bring more regulation and legitimacy to them?

   Themes: Mental health, Regulation and Policy, e-Health, Social and Behaviour Change Communication

3. Dr Anju is a medical officer posted in a Mohalla clinic (a primary health center) in North Delhi. Over the four years she has been posted, she has noticed how patients keep returning after the medications she prescribes have no effect on them, forcing her to resort to second and third-line antibiotics. The Mohalla clinic was the first formal health clinic in the area, with only traditional healers and quack doctors practicing there before. Anju wishes to understand her population's resistance patterns to common pathogens but has limited revenue and no resources to do so. She fears she is propagating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within her community by prescribing second-generation antibiotics.  As the pandemic of AMR spreads across the globe, antimicrobial stewardship programs continue to remain limited due to a lack of resources. Local population resistance patterns are important for antimicrobial stewardship programs. How can technologists use AI to discern local resistance patterns and help clinicians prescribe appropriate antibiotics?

Themes: Antimicrobial resistance, Global Health, AI, Public health, Social and Behaviour Change Communication

4. With the ongoing demographic transition, a large geriatric population is expected to be added in the upcoming decades (UNFPA, 2023). Countries like Japan and Italy already have these population pyramids, with plummeting birth rates. In the forthcoming time, this population will require the greatest portion of healthcare resources, and considering we are expected to face a shortage of human health resources, digital health interventions can be a way to manage healthcare resources more optimally.  What are some digital health interventions that can be designed to support their health and well-being, given that digital literacy is a challenge for elderly populations?

Themes: Geriatric and population health, Digital health literacy, Technology, Capacity building, Social and Behaviour Change Communication



5. Pema is a 24-year-old farmer in a remote tribal village in Chhattisgarh. Sickle-cell disease is common in his community (Panigrahi et al, 2015), and many children and adults alike suffer from undernutrition. The lack of rain led to a disproportionately low harvest, with erratic weather patterns in recent years affecting both their incomes and sources of food.  Over 2 billion people worldwide are deficient in micronutrients (WHO, 2006), with climate change threatening to exacerbate nutritional deficiencies and the existing food insecurity. Vulnerable people like Pema are often at the receiving end of this crisis. What are some innovative digital health tools or programs to help alleviate the growing burden of nutritional deficiencies?

Themes: Climate change, Tribal health, Nutrition, Food security, Anemia, Social and Behaviour Change Communication



6. Makena is a 16-year-old girl from Burkina Faso. At home, she takes care of her younger siblings and helps her mother with housework and fetching water. She has little time to rest or study. Her father is the only person in the family to own a mobile phone and is away working for most of the day. Her friend Kwame was given an old phone and explained how she has been watching educational videos to learn on her phone. She tells how she watched a video explaining why Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) (FMGCRI, n.d.), a common practice within their community, is rejected medically and is an outdated practice harmful to girls. Makena is shocked and excited to hear this. She goes home to explain this to her mother who remains skeptical, arguing how their grandmothers and ancestors have been doing it, and it is a tradition they must continue.  There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation among women when it comes to their health- especially sexual and reproductive health. Women are less likely than men to own mobile phones (GSMA, 2024). This has many implications for access issues, including information asymmetry. What are some ways access to mobile phones can help resolve health issues of poor women in subSaharan Africa?

Themes: Sexual and Reproductive health, Information asymmetry, mHealth, Community mobilization, Social and Behaviour Change Communication



7. Priya is a tea garden worker in Dibrugarh, Assam. She and her husband recently had a newborn son who was born without any complications. During her pregnancy, she did not go for her antenatal care visits regularly.  A few days after birth, Priya developed a breast infection (mastitis) and was unable to breastfeed her son. Both Priya and her husband became worried, unable to understand what else to feed their newborn. The two have limited awareness of post-natal self-care. In rural areas where there is a lack of human health resources and unawareness, a lack of continuum of maternity care can result in negative birth outcomes. How can digital health tools aid the promotion and uptake of the continuum of care across the course of pregnancy for such groups?

Themes: Family health, continuum of care, Community mobilization, Social and Behaviour Change Communication