Beyond the Device – What Does It Take to Turn Health Technology into Lasting Health Capacity?

Diagnostic programmes often demonstrate progress through the numbers that are easiest to count: devices purchased, facilities equipped and health workers trained. These measures matter because they show reach. But they do not answer the harder question at the heart of this session: whether each deployed device becomes part of a service that is clinically trusted, routinely used, locally maintained and still functioning after the project that introduced it ends.

For handheld ultrasound, deployment quality marks the difference between placing equipment in the field and building durable diagnostic capability at the last mile. The device can enable decentralised diagnosis, but impact depends on the ecosystem around it: needs-based placement, competency-based training, AI-support for novice ultrasound scanners including quality assurance, referral integration, data use, local technical service, access to replacement parts and financing beyond the initial grant.

This roundtable will explore how funders, ministries, implementing partners, academic institutions and technology providers can move beyond a false choice between quality and quantity. Participants will discuss how to plan the right number of devices, place them where they can be used well, and resource the support model that turns deployment into lasting clinical value. The session asks what must be designed and funded from day one so that scale is not only broad, but resilient.