A Ghanaian medical practitioner has been selected as one of 13 finalists to participate in the maiden edition of the Humans of Digital Health Campaign.

The campaign is being organised by the Young Experts Tech for Health, a global platform of youth advocates in digital health who aim to shape and guide the agenda towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030 through data and digital technologies.

As a finalist, Dr Gideon Assan is expected to join other Tech for Health advocates to explore how technology influences the youth’s experience of health and how young people can use technology to shape health for the future.

He will use his experience as an African youth and a medical practitioner to contribute to the global awareness being raised on how digital technologies can be harnessed to build a more holistic, accessible, equitable health system in Ghana and on the continent.

The young medical practitioner entered the competition by submitting a proposal on his curated comic-health drama project, making waves on social media in the last three months.

Realising the cultural and institutional barriers to the dissemination and consumption of health information in Ghana, the UCC School of Medical Sciences alumnus decided to use the power of the digital media to make health information available to all.

Under the rubric “Health Quarters Ghana”, the medic has been creating video content using comic actors who act out everyday health dilemmas and myths using his medical knowledge to clarify these “dilemmas”.

These skits are circulated on digital platforms for free with the aim that the over six million social media users in Ghana are provided with crucial but often ignored health tit-bits in an interesting but informative way.

For the Humans of Digital Health Campaign, he will be tasked to develop this telehealth initiative, the first of its kind in Ghana, further into a digital database of audio-visual content on important health information.

The Young Experts: Tech 4 Health is an independent partner of Transform Health Association, a Switzerland-based organization.

The mission of the Young Experts is to engender a global movement that re-imagines healthcare in a digital age and champions youth voices and perspectives by harnessing the power of human-centred technology to deliver inclusive, equitable, and accessible healthcare.