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. 2024 May 28:10:20552076241257058.
doi: 10.1177/20552076241257058. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.

Digital rights and mobile health in Southeast Asia: A scoping review

Adam Poulsen  1 , Yun Jc Song  1 , Eduard Fosch-Villaronga  2 , Haley M LaMonica  1 , Olivia Iannelli  1 , Mafruha Alam  1 , Ian B Hickie  1
Affiliations

Digital rights and mobile health in Southeast Asia: A scoping review

Adam Poulsen et al. Digit Health. .

Abstract

Objective: Digital technology has the potential to support or infringe upon human rights. The ubiquity of mobile technology in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) presents an opportunity to leverage mobile health (mHealth) interventions to reach remote populations and enable them to exercise human rights. Yet, simultaneously, the proliferation of mHealth results in expanding sensitive datasets and data processing, which risks endangering rights. The promotion of digital health often centers on its role in enhancing rights and health equity, particularly in LMICs. However, the interplay between mHealth in LMICs and digital rights is underexplored. The objective of this scoping review is to bridge this gap and identify digital rights topics in the 2022 literature on mHealth in Southeast Asian LMICs. Furthermore, it aims to highlight the importance of patient empowerment and data protection in mHealth and related policies in LMICs.

Methods: This review follows Arksey and O'Malley's framework for scoping reviews. Search results are reported using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist. Frequency and content analyses were applied to summarize and interpret the data.

Results: Three key findings emerge from this review. First, the digital rights topics covered in the literature are sparse, sporadic, and unsystematic. Second, despite significant concerns surrounding data privacy in Southeast Asian LMICs, no article in this review explores challenges to data privacy. Third, all included articles state or allude to the role of mHealth in advancing the right to health.

Conclusions: Engagement in digital rights topics in the literature on mHealth in Southeast Asian mHealth is limited and irregular. Researchers and practitioners lack guidance, collective understanding, and shared language to proactively examine and communicate digital rights topics in mHealth in LMIC research. A systematic method for engaging with digital rights in this context is required going forward.

Keywords: Human rights; LMICs; Southeast Asia; data privacy; mHealth; scoping review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: IBH is the Codirector, Health and Policy at the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC) University of Sydney. The BMC operates an early-intervention youth service at Camperdown under contract to headspace. He is the Chief Scientific Advisor to, and a 3.2% equity shareholder in, InnoWell Pty Ltd which aims to transform mental health services through the use of innovative technologies. AP, YJCS, EFV, HML, OI, and MA have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA-ScR flow diagram of the scoping review process. Generated by authors using the Shiny app for producing PRISMA 2020-compliant flow diagrams.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

    1. United Nations General Assembly. The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet. 2012.
    1. United Nations General Assembly. The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet. 2016.
    1. United Nations General Assembly. Road map for digital cooperation: implementation of the recommendations of the high-level panel on digital cooperation. 2020.
    1. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The right to privacy in the digital age. 2022.
    1. European Commission. European declaration on digital rights and principles for the digital decade. 2023.

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