# Introduction
This site has two objectives:
- to guide the health organisations in the technical component of their digital interventions, in providing them a landscape of the available technologies that may be directly implemented, or that may be used in the design of a custom solution.
- to inform the developers about the existing technologies that may be of some help in their work with the above organisations.
Some solutions exist out of the box. This site lists some of those operational solutions. Those functional blocks can be used as is, of can be gather together with the cost of an interoperability layer and multiple user interfaces.
Most of the modern applications are distributed and split their logic into two blocks: the user interface, or frontend, and the business logic and data storage, that occurs on servers, or backend. This site presents the main technologies of the two worlds in separate pages, but the same programming languages, such as JavaScript, can be are used on both ends.
The DevOps section documents the most popular tools to ensure continuous integration and delivery of applications, as well as tools to keep the service up and running.
Last, the miscellaneous tools section presents a few tools and resources that could be of some help for the developers and implementers evolving in the Digital Health sector in low and middle income countries.
# How this list is done
This list of software is not exhaustive, as the subject is too broad to run a full-range benchmark, and as some pretty exiting technologies may not change the statu quo in the LMIC digital health sector. It also reflects the personal view and experience of the author: if you think this list is opinionated, you're right, it is. If you believe some items are missing and should be added to the list, don't hesitate to contribute in editing the site - it will trigger a pull request on the site's GitHub repository.
Technologies are sometimes described in using the pitch from their authors, or poached from other public sources, such as the Global Goods Guidebook from Digital Square. The descriptions will be improved with time. Once again, don't hesitate to contribute.
When a technology is based on a GitHub repository, three badges are put next to its title: number of stars, number of contributors, and last commit. Although quite arbitrary, this information indicates the size and vitality of the community that backs the technology.
# Further reading
The World Health Organisation launched a platform to gather the main Digital Health interventions across the world into a Digital Health Atlas.
The Principles for Digital Development are nine living guidelines that are designed to help integrate best practices into technology-enabled programs and are intended to be updated and refined over time. They include guidance for every phase of the project life cycle, and they are part of an ongoing effort among development practitioners to share knowledge and support continuous learning. The Digital Principles were first created in consultation with organizations such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Health Organization (WHO).