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Paper short abstract:

In this article, I argue that the sociotechnical imaginaries of AI-powered healthcare solutions in Ghana are embedded in a set of captivating attributes and promises mediated and supported by different social actors who are imagining and reshaping the hospital.

Paper long abstract:

In this article, I am employing the concept of 'sociotechnical imaginaries' by Sheila Jasanoff to explore how hospitals have been imagined and reshaped by the promises of deploying Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare system in Ghana. The article is based on carefully examining Ghana's National E-Health Strategy for 2010, which is -so far- the only national strategy available for healthcare digitalization in Ghana and it is the official policy framework that guides Ghana's implementation of digital healthcare. In addition to, interviews with developers and entrepreneurs from Ghana who are developing AI-powered solutions for healthcare are utilised to understand the trajectories from simply digitalizing hospitals and other healthcare facilities to employing the state-of-art technology and to disrupt healthcare spaces. This article will show how data-driven healthcare solutions are imagined and what are the current and foreseen obstacles of deployment and upscaling. Digitalizing healthcare hindrances are often documented as poor digital infrastructure, data availability and quality, and regulations, and trained healthcare givers and users. However, these obstacles didn’t discourage sociotechnical imaginaries of AI powered healthcare delivery evolvement. I argue that the sociotechnical imaginaries of AI powered healthcare solutions are embedded in a set of captivating attributes and promises mediated and supported by government healthcare policies, media, national and international healthcare organizations’ programmers, investors and donors, data scientists, tech engineers, and tech entrepreneurs.