The need for a systems approach to healthcare technology management interventions in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has the symptoms of a crisis in healthcare technology management (HTM) which impacts adversely on healthcare delivery. The region is also at risk of becoming increasingly marginalised in terms of global developments. HTM interventions in the region will continue to be sub-optimal unless HTM is recognised as a complex, dynamic, multi-level, multi-disciplinary process which can only be optimised through a holistic systems-based understanding of the technology intervention process. Healthcare engineering professionals have a catalytic role in optimising healthcare technology interventions in the region. Their contributions need to be identified as part of a spectrum of supporting and facilitating activities which must have as their final objective the improvement of health outcomes in the region.