Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can play a crucial role in meeting multifaceted developmental challenges such as providing access to quality healthcare in developing countries. Initiatives such as telemedicine have been vital in bringing healthcare to marginalized groups in remote areas of such countries. While the implementation and effects of telemedicine projects have been studied in the literature, the actual mechanisms and conditions that facilitate the process has seldom been addressed. In this paper, we present an interpretive case study of a telemedicine project in a remote mountainous region of Nepal. Our findings indicate that it was the action of a group of focal actors who leveraged a supportive social capital that resulted in successfully bringing in quality healthcare to marginalized groups in these remote villages. Our findings reveal social capital as a facilitating condition through which ICT can play a crucial role in meeting developmental challenges such as quality health care.
Recommended Citation
Sein, Maung K. and Thapa, Devinder, "Social Capital in enabling quality healthcare: The case of a telemedicine project in Nepal" (2017). GlobDev 2017. 7.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/globdev2017/7