About the Journal

1. Journal Identity and Founding Vision

1.1. Foundational Context

The African Journal of Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence (AJDHAI) represents a strategic scholarly initiative launched by the Pan African Health Informatics Association (HELINA) in response to Africa's accelerating digital health transformation. As the continent faces a dual burden of persistent infectious diseases and rapidly rising non-communicable conditions—all within healthcare systems often constrained by resource limitations, workforce shortages, and infrastructural gaps—digital technologies and artificial intelligence present unprecedented opportunities for health system leapfrogging. AJDHAI emerges at this critical juncture to ensure that Africa's digital health evolution is guided by rigorous, contextualized, and ethically grounded evidence generated from within the continent.

1.2. Core Mission and Vision

Mission Statement: AJDHAI exists to advance the science, ethics, and implementation of digital health and artificial intelligence in Africa by providing a premier platform for disseminating high-quality, contextually relevant research that bridges technological innovation with tangible health system improvement and equitable health outcomes.

Vision Statement: To become the authoritative global reference for digital health and AI scholarship centered on Africa, catalyzing evidence-based policy, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and accelerating the development of homegrown solutions that address the continent's most pressing health challenges through responsible technological innovation.

2. Publisher and Strategic Framework

2.1. Institutional Home

AJDHAI is published under the auspices of the Pan African Health Informatics Association (HELINA). This positioning provides the journal with:

  • Academic Credibility: Direct linkage to a global informatics network with established standards

  • Continental Network: Access to HELINA's established network of national health informatics associations across Africa

  • Strategic Alignment: Natural alignment with HELINA's mission to professionalize health informatics and promote digital health research across the continent

2.2. Foundational Philosophy

The journal operates on four foundational pillars:

  1. Contextual Relevance: Prioritizing research that addresses Africa-specific health priorities, infrastructure realities, and sociocultural considerations

  2. Interdisciplinary Integration: Actively bridging computer science, clinical medicine, public health, social sciences, ethics, and policy

  3. Implementation Focus: Emphasizing practical application, scalability, and sustainability alongside technological innovation

  4. Ethical Stewardship: Championing equitable access, algorithmic fairness, data sovereignty, and community-centered design

3. Aims and Scope

The core objectives of AJDHAI are to:

  • Publish high-quality, original research that addresses Africa's specific health challenges, infrastructural ecosystems, and opportunities for innovation.
  • Highlight case studies, implementation science, and evaluations that translate technological potential into tangible health system improvements and patient outcomes.
  • Create a space for conversation among data scientists, clinicians, public health experts, policymakers, ethicists, and community stakeholders to co-create solutions.
  • Champion research and discourse on equitable access, algorithmic fairness, data governance, privacy, and the ethical deployment of AI, ensuring technologies serve all populations.
  • Support the development of Africa's digital health research workforce and serve as an educational resource for students, practitioners, and leaders in the field.

The journal's scope is firmly rooted in the African context, prioritizing work that addresses the continent's unique health challenges, infrastructural realities, and opportunities for sustainable, equitable transformation.

Our scope is organized into the following core thematic areas:

i. Foundational AI and Data Science for Health

  • Development, validation, and application of AI algorithms (e.g., for diagnostics, prognosis, treatment optimization) tailored to African data sets and disease profiles.
  • Methodologies for extracting insights from large-scale health data, including electronic health records (EHRs), genomic data, and environmental data.
  • Applications of natural language processing for processing clinical notes, medical literature, or public health communications in African languages and contexts.
  • AI applications for analyzing medical imagery (e.g., radiology, pathology, ophthalmology) in resource-constrained settings.

ii. Digital Health Interventions and Implementation Science

  • Design, deployment, and evaluation of mobile phone-based tools for patient education, remote monitoring, adherence support, and community health worker empowerment.
  • Telemedicine and telehealth studies focusing on virtual care models, their integration into health systems, and their impact on access, cost, and quality of care across urban and rural divides.
  • Use of wearable and sensor technologies devices for continuous health monitoring and data collection in African populations.
  • Implementation research on strategies, barriers, and facilitators for successfully integrating and scaling digital health solutions within African health systems.

iii. Health Systems, Interoperability, and Infrastructure

  • Design of robust, scalable, and affordable digital health infrastructure, including cloud-based solutions and edge computing for low-connectivity areas.
  • Work on data standards, terminologies (e.g., adapting SNOMED CT, LOINC), and frameworks to enable interoperability and seamless data exchange between heterogeneous systems.
  • Innovations in district-level health information systems, patient registries, and data warehousing for improved health management and decision-making.
  • Studies on workforce capacity building, training programs, and change management for the digital health workforce.

iv. Policy, Governance, Ethics, and Equity

  • Data governance and privacy frameworks for the ethical collection, ownership, sharing, and protection of health data in compliance with evolving African regulations.
  • Critical examinations of bias in AI models and datasets, and methods to develop equitable, transparent, and accountable AI for diverse African populations.
  • Research ensuring digital health solutions do not exacerbate existing inequalities but rather bridge gaps for marginalized, rural, or low-literacy communities.
  • Evaluations of national digital health strategies, regulatory landscapes, and sustainable financing models for digital health in Africa.

v. Clinical and Public Health Applications

  • AI-driven approaches to tailor prevention, diagnosis, and treatment based on individual patient characteristics (Precision and Personalized Medicine).
  • Digital tools and AI models for early outbreak detection, contact tracing, and epidemic forecasting (e.g., for Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, emerging pathogens).
  • Digital programs for screening, managing, and preventing non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer.
  • Technology-enabled solutions to improve maternal, child, and adolescent health outcomes along the continuum of care.

AJDHAI welcomes diverse scholarly contributions, including:

  • Original research articles (empirical and observational studies)
  • Review articles (systematic, scoping, and narrative reviews)
  • Case studies and field reports on implementations and innovations
  • Methodological articles detailing novel approaches or frameworks
  • Short communications and letters
  • Commentaries and perspectives on emerging trends and policy
  • Special issues on focused thematic areas