1. Introduction
Persistent reproductive health disparities in rural Central Europe—particularly in Poland, Romania, and Hungary—reflect a complex mix of infrastructural, cultural, and policy-level inequities. These regions consistently report elevated maternal mortality rates, lower contraceptive uptake, and limited access to gynaecological care compared to their urban counterparts. Romania remains the most affected, with maternal mortality reaching 85 per 100,000 live births—well above the WHO’s target of fewer than 70—and significantly higher rates reported in rural areas (Orru et al., 2024). While Poland and Hungary perform better at the national level, internal disparities point to a broader pattern of systemic neglect in rural women’s reproductive healthcare (Lišková, 2021; Pető & Svégel, 2024).
In response to these challenges, digital reproductive health interventions have gained traction as scalable tools to improve access. Teleconsultations, mobile applications, and eHealth platforms offer confidential, user-directed alternatives to traditional care—particularly vital in conservative or stigmatized settings where in-person services are either limited or avoided (Alsubahi et al., 2024; Pavlović, 2023). Early evidence from Romania and Hungary shows promising uptake among younger, digitally literate women, who demonstrate improved health literacy and greater engagement with reproductive services (Pop, 2022).
However, the potential of digital tools is constrained by persistent structural barriers. A legacy of centralized governance, chronic underinvestment in rural health infrastructure, and fragmented service delivery models limit the integration of these technologies into national healthcare systems. While internet penetration in Poland and Hungary approaches 85%, it drops sharply in rural Romania and among marginalized communities, curbing the reach of digital interventions precisely where they are most needed (Lišková, 2021). These gaps are further exacerbated by restrictive legal frameworks and strong religious influences, which limit the visibility and promotion of contraception and abortion services (Pető & Svégel, 2024).
Compounding these barriers is a research landscape that tends to generalize from urban populations or Western European contexts, failing to account for the specific sociopolitical and historical realities of Central and Eastern Europe. This lack of localized insight risks misalignment between intervention design and community needs.
To address this gap, this review systematically examines the deployment and impact of digital reproductive health tools in rural Poland, Romania, and Hungary. By anchoring the analysis in region-specific challenges and opportunities, the goal is to inform the development of equitable, context-sensitive digital health strategies that can effectively reach and serve under-resourced rural populations.
2. Methodology
This review applies a structured, systematic approach to assess the development, accessibility, and scalability of digital reproductive health tools for women in rural Central Europe, focusing on Poland, Romania, and Hungary. These countries were selected due to shared post-socialist healthcare legacies, pronounced disparities in rural service delivery, and differing levels of digital health maturity.
Digital reproductive health tools are defined in accordance with WHO and UNFPA standards as “digital technologies and platforms that facilitate access to, support delivery of, or improve literacy around sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.” This includes telemedicine, mobile health (mHealth) applications, SMS or voice-based systems, digital contraceptive counselling tools, and online educational content (WHO, 2021; UNFPA, 2021). Emphasis is placed on tools that support equitable and culturally appropriate models of delivery in resource-constrained rural settings.
The literature search spanned PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, targeting publications from 2019 to 2024. Keywords included: “digital health,” “reproductive health,” “rural,” “telemedicine,” “mHealth,” “Poland,” “Hungary,” “Romania,” and “women.” In addition to peer-reviewed studies, grey literature—such as NGO reports, government strategy documents, and regional pilot assessments—was reviewed. Inclusion criteria focused on rural populations, digital SRH tools, and relevance to health or policy outcomes; urban-focused or non-SRH digital health studies were excluded.
Data were synthesized thematically across four domains: infrastructure and digital access, service uptake and clinical outcomes, cultural and institutional barriers, and scale-up potential. The WHO Digital Health Atlas was used as an evaluative framework to assess strategic alignment, system integration, implementation maturity, and governance (WHO, 2021).
This methodology sets the foundation for a regionally grounded analysis. The following section explores how these tools are influencing reproductive health service uptake and outcomes across underserved rural populations.
3. Digital Access and Health Outcomes in Rural Central Europe
Robust digital infrastructure is a foundational requirement for effective reproductive health interventions in rural areas. Yet in Poland, Romania, and Hungary, digital inequities continue to shape clinical outcomes, particularly around maternal health, antenatal care, and cancer screening coverage. Despite national advancements in digital development, rural communities remain disproportionately underserved due to persistent technological and socio-demographic gaps.
Digital infrastructure: A fragmented and uneven landscape
Although rural internet access has expanded in recent years, major disparities remain. Internet penetration reaches roughly 82% in rural Poland, 76% in Hungary, and just 65% in Romania (Orru et al., 2024). These statistics, however, mask deeper issues of digital literacy. Across all three countries, women—especially older individuals and those with less formal education—face significant barriers in engaging with digital reproductive health platforms (Morrissey & Maxwell, 2024). In Romania, these challenges are further compounded by poverty and infrastructural neglect, making both access and effective use of eHealth tools particularly difficult (Varzaru et al., 2024).
While national digital health systems exist—such as Poland’s "Patient Internet Account", Hungary’s eHealth telemedicine pilot, and Romania’s pandemic-era teleconsultation services—they tend to be generalized in function and fail to deliver SRH-specific content tailored to rural women. This misalignment represents a critical implementation gap: the tools may exist, but they often do not meet the reproductive health needs of underserved populations (Varzaru et al., 2024).
Clinical consequences of digital exclusion
The real-world effects of these digital divides are reflected in reproductive health indicators that lag WHO standards. Antenatal care (ANC) coverage, defined by the WHO as a minimum of four visits per pregnancy, falls below optimal levels in rural settings: 88% in Poland, 84% in Hungary, and only 68% in Romania (Therrell et al., 2024). These disparities in maternal monitoring are linked to heightened perinatal risks, especially where in-person services are geographically or financially out of reach.
Maternal mortality statistics offer a further window into systemic gaps. While Hungary (12 per 100,000) and Poland (2.2 per 100,000) meet the WHO target of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, rural-specific rates are often higher—though rarely disaggregated or publicly reported. Romania, by contrast, remains critically above target, with a maternal mortality rate of 85 per 100,000. Rural women account for a disproportionate number of these deaths, largely due to delays in care, absence of emergency services, and low continuity of care (Orru et al., 2024).
Cervical cancer screening rates reveal similar inequalities. Coverage among eligible rural women stands at 52% in Poland, 49% in Hungary, and just 36% in Romania—well below the WHO’s ≥70% target (Therrell et al., 2024). While NGOs and public health bodies have introduced mobile clinics and digital reminders, uptake remains limited by stigma, low awareness, and the absence of sustained engagement strategies.
Closing the digital-clinical divide
Bridging these digital access gaps requires more than expanding broadband. As WHO (2021) and UNFPA (2021) emphasize, digital health equity must be built into the design of healthcare systems. This includes the development of culturally appropriate, low-barrier platforms and community-based literacy initiatives. Effective approaches include training rural health providers in digital tools, launching education campaigns to build platform trust, and deploying accessible technologies like SMS-based or voice-response systems for populations with limited smartphone access.
Currently, these approaches are not formally embedded in national SRH policies or eHealth strategies in any of the three countries (Vieira & Câmara, 2024). Moreover, a lack of disaggregated reproductive health data by geography, age, or socioeconomic status undermines efforts to evaluate the reach and impact of digital interventions—highlighting a critical gap in both surveillance and policy accountability. The following section explores these challenges in greater depth by examining Telehealth Adoption and Cultural Barriers—factors that further mediate the relationship between digital access and reproductive health outcomes in rural Central Europe.
4. Telehealth Adoption and Cultural Barriers
Telehealth adoption and cultural barriers
As digital health systems expand across Central Europe, telehealth holds significant potential to close reproductive healthcare gaps in rural communities. By offering user-directed, confidential, and accessible services, telehealth platforms can theoretically bypass longstanding barriers related to geography, cost, and service availability. However, in practice, telehealth for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) remains underutilized in Hungary, Poland, and Romania. A combination of sociocultural resistance, digital exclusion, and low trust in health data governance continues to constrain both adoption and impact.
Uneven implementation: Promising pilots, systemic gaps
Despite digital momentum spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, few SRH telehealth platforms in the region have achieved sustained reach or integration. Romania’s TeleDoc platform, launched to improve maternal health in underserved areas, initially enhanced antenatal care adherence. However, uptake has since stalled, hindered by limited rural mobile access, low digital literacy, and minimal public awareness campaigns (Varzaru et al., 2024).
In Hungary, the eVita initiative—a midwife-led telehealth program for postpartum care—has shown positive localized outcomes but remains confined to two counties. It lacks integration into national policy and is unsupported by a dedicated funding or reimbursement mechanism (Solarevic et al., 2024). Similarly, Poland’s "Patient Internet Account" provides broad access to digital health services but is poorly utilized for SRH, particularly among older women in rural areas (Morrissey & Maxwell, 2024).
These fragmented initiatives underscore a broader issue: the absence of cohesive, SRH-specific strategies embedded within national digital health frameworks. As noted by WHO (2022), such disjointed implementation is a recurring limitation in low-access regions globally.
Cultural conservatism and SRH Stigma
Beyond infrastructural and policy gaps, sociocultural resistance poses a formidable barrier to telehealth adoption. In many rural areas, particularly in Poland and Romania, conservative religious values and politically entrenched opposition to contraception and abortion create environments hostile to SRH engagement (ODI, 2022). Women in these regions often avoid using telehealth platforms for fear of social judgment or ostracism.
The stigma surrounding reproductive health is compounded by limited SRH education and a lack of digital privacy. Many women, particularly adolescents and unmarried individuals, are hesitant to access sensitive content via shared or monitored devices. These privacy concerns discourage meaningful engagement, even when tools are technically available (UNFPA, 2021).
Data privacy and mistrust in governance
Mistrust in digital surveillance and weak data governance further erode user confidence. In Poland, the aftermath of the 2020 abortion law reform has amplified fears of state surveillance, deterring women from using any digital platform that may store or transmit reproductive health data (Hu et al., 2025). Romania faces parallel challenges, with widespread scepticism rooted in historic misuse of personal data by underregulated public institutions (ODI, 2022).
Despite WHO’s (2021) call for “privacy-by-design” digital systems—where users control how their data is collected, stored, and shared—none of the three countries currently enforce SRH-specific data protection frameworks. There are also no clear mechanisms for third-party audits or community oversight of reproductive health data use.
Building trust through inclusive design
To realize telehealth’s potential in rural reproductive care, future strategies must move beyond access and address trust, usability, and cultural fit. Key actions include:
· Introducing explicit user consent mechanisms, including options to anonymize or delete SRH data;
·Developing culturally responsive platforms with local-language content and visual elements suited for low-literacy populations, and;
·Partnering with trusted community organizations—such as faith-based groups, women’s networks, or local NGOs—to conduct education campaigns that increase awareness of digital rights and normalize use of SRH tools.
Such strategies must be aligned with broader Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and gender equity goals, as outlined by WHO and UNFPA. Global examples such as India’s eSanjeevani and Kenya’s Nivi illustrate that telehealth can thrive in low-resource settings when anchored in ethical safeguards, functional simplicity, and community trust (WHO, 2022; UNFPA, 2021).
Table 1 provides a comparative overview of how rural SRH digital health indicators in Poland, Hungary, and Romania stack up against WHO standards. It highlights key shortfalls in antenatal care coverage, maternal mortality, digital literacy, internet access, and cervical cancer screening. These quantitative gaps echo the cultural and systemic barriers outlined above and reinforce the need for coordinated, equity-focused strategies. Based on the table these three countries show partial progress in infrastructure but remain limited in system-level SRH integration, data governance, and telehealth trust—especially in rural areas.
To move from isolated pilot projects to national impact, Central European countries must embed telehealth into broader health policy and digital governance systems. The following section, scalability challenges and opportunities in rural Central Europe, examines the institutional, financial, and design-related constraints that currently hinder sustainable expansion—and identifies pathways for creating durable, inclusive telehealth ecosystems across the region.
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| Table 1[1]: Comparative analysis of WHO Standards vs. rural digital reproductive health variables in 3 Central European countries |
[1] Bold indicators reflect alignment with WHO/UNFPA frameworks for universal digital health equity (WHO, 2021; UNFPA, 2021).
5. Scalability Challenges and Opportunities
While digital reproductive health tools have shown clear potential in improving rural healthcare access across Central Europe, their full-scale integration into national systems remains limited. In Poland, Romania, and Hungary, several promising initiatives have emerged, but they remain constrained by institutional fragmentation, unstable funding, and insufficient workforce capacity. Without addressing these systemic weaknesses, pilot projects risk stagnation rather than evolving into long-term, sustainable health solutions.
Institutional fragmentation and lack of integration
A major impediment to scaling digital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is the lack of integration into national eHealth policies. The WHO’s Global Strategy on Digital Health (2021) emphasizes that digital tools must be embedded within national healthcare infrastructure, supported by regulatory frameworks and public financing. In practice, however, this alignment is largely absent.
Romania’s TeleDoc platform, though impactful at the local level, operates outside formal health insurance and policy systems (Varzaru et al., 2024). Hungary’s eVita postpartum care initiative also lacks national linkage, functioning in just two counties without formal reimbursement mechanisms or strategic oversight (Solarevic et al., 2024). Even in Poland—where digital infrastructure is relatively advanced—reproductive health services are not clearly delineated within rural eHealth strategies (Vieira & Câmara, 2024). Without policy coherence and institutional backing, scalability remains elusive.
Short-term financing and unsustainable models
Most digital SRH efforts in Central Europe are heavily reliant on short-term donor funding or EU pilot grants. Programs like TeleDoc have shown early success but lack long-term co-financing or built-in mechanisms for sustainability (Solarevic et al., 2024). Hungary’s eVita program continues to operate without a dedicated line in the national health budget. There is also limited engagement with public-private partnership (PPP) models that could stabilize funding and facilitate scale.
International examples offer more sustainable alternatives. India’s eSanjeevani and Bangladesh’s Aponjon programs combine public-sector investment with hybrid funding strategies, including outcome-linked grants and private sector participation (WHO, 2022). These models offer blueprints for Central Europe, where reliance on donor cycles leaves innovation vulnerable to disruption.
Workforce readiness and training deficits
Scalability also depends on digital competency among healthcare providers—an area where gaps persist. In rural Central Europe, midwives, nurses, and general practitioners often lack formal training in digital tools and telehealth communication. None of the three countries currently integrate digital SRH training into continuing medical education (CME) programs (Vieira & Câmara, 2024). This underinvestment in human capital limits platform uptake and patient engagement, even where technology is available.
The WHO (2021) underscores the importance of aligning system-wide digital transformation with investments in health worker skills and digital literacy. Training frameworks, certifications, and financial incentives will be essential to build a workforce capable of delivering equitable digital SRH services at scale.
Regional coordination and missed opportunities
At the regional level, opportunities for alignment exist through EU initiatives like the Digital Decade 2030 and frameworks such as NET4Age-Friendly. These platforms offer shared data standards, evaluation tools, and cross-border funding opportunities (Auer et al., 2024). However, digital reproductive health tools in Central Europe are not formally linked to these mechanisms. Moreover, none of the programs reviewed report use of the WHO’s Digital Health Atlas, a valuable benchmarking resource for tracking digital health maturity, interoperability, and strategic alignment.
By integrating such frameworks, Central European governments could improve both credibility and investment readiness—crucial elements for attracting regional and international support.
To overcome these challenges, Central Europe can look to international best practices in scaling digital reproductive health. The next section explores how countries with similar resource constraints have successfully institutionalized and expanded digital SRH platforms—offering practical insights for the region’s path forward.
6. Global Innovation Models—Lessons for Central Europe
Addressing the ongoing challenges of scaling digital reproductive health tools in rural Central Europe requires learning from international successes. While pilot initiatives in Hungary, Romania, and Poland—such as eVita and TeleDoc—have demonstrated localized success in areas like postpartum and antenatal care (Solarevic et al., 2024; Varzaru et al., 2024), they remain fragmented, donor-dependent, and disconnected from broader digital health systems. In contrast, global models from South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America offer adaptable strategies rooted in equity, simplicity, and user-centered design.
This section builds on earlier discussions of scalability by identifying key features of high-performing global platforms and exploring how these lessons can be culturally and institutionally adapted for Central European contexts.
Local innovation, national gaps
Despite their potential, Central European SRH platforms often fail to scale. Romania’s TeleDoc and Hungary’s eVita have shown clear benefits in improving maternal health outcomes but remain geographically narrow and lack integration into national policies or insurance frameworks. Poland’s Patient Internet Account, while broader in scope, still does not include SRH-specific features tailored to rural populations (Vieira & Câmara, 2024).
These limitations mirror early-stage patterns in other regions, where promising tools stalled without policy support, sustainable funding, and health system alignment.
What global models get right
Several international programs offer effective, scalable blueprints:
- India’s mMitra sends time-sensitive voice messages in local languages to low-income women, improving antenatal adherence and health literacy. Its mobile-only format and regional language customization make it both accessible and cost-effective (WHO, 2022).
- Kenya’s Nivi uses SMS and WhatsApp to deliver anonymous, AI-driven reproductive counseling. Gamified interactions and confidential service delivery reduce stigma and increase engagement with family planning resources (UNFPA, 2021).
- Bangladesh’s Aponjon combines mobile messaging with a public-private funding model, linking women to clinics and hotline support through interactive voice and text systems. The program integrates feedback loops and data monitoring to improve service delivery over time.
These platforms succeed by prioritizing localization, privacy, multichannel access, and offline usability—all directly applicable to Central Europe’s digitally underserved rural populations.
Adapting principles, not just platforms
Rather than replicating technology-heavy models, Central European countries should adapt the underlying principles that drive success. Key strategies include:
- Low-threshold access: Tools should support SMS or voice formats for users with limited digital literacy—particularly relevant in Romania’s rural counties.
- Community engagement: Partnerships with trusted intermediaries such as NGOs, midwives, and faith-based groups can help overcome cultural mistrust and increase uptake.
- Culturally tailored design: SRH platforms should reflect regional dialects, norms, and privacy sensitivities, especially in delivering contraception or abortion information.
- Sustainable governance: Drawing from Aponjon’s PPP model, governments should build hybrid investment strategies that combine public funds with private co-financing to move beyond donor dependency.
These adaptations align with the WHO’s Digital Health Guidelines for Implementation Research and UNFPA’s Innovation in Reproductive Health roadmap, both of which stress local ownership, equity, and cost-efficiency (WHO, 2021; UNFPA, 2021).
Toward regional synergy
Europe’s Digital Decade 2030 and networks like NET4Age-Friendly offer infrastructure for shared standards, funding access, and cross-border innovation (Auer et al., 2024). However, most Central European SRH tools are not yet integrated into these platforms. Establishing these connections would enable:
- Consistent benchmarking and performance tracking;
- Improved system interoperability across countries;
- Expanded eligibility for EU funding tied to equity and aging priorities.
Integrating digital SRH tools into these frameworks could turn isolated innovations into cohesive regional strategies—positioning reproductive health equity as a shared mandate, not just a national objective.
The following section examines how global programs use data, audits, and user feedback to refine digital health delivery—and how similar systems can be developed to ensure accountability and continuous improvement in the region.
7. Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks
The long-term success of digital reproductive health tools in rural Central Europe depends not only on innovative design and delivery but also on strong, context-sensitive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. As pilot initiatives expand in Hungary, Romania, and Poland, the need for transparent, standardized, and outcomes-driven frameworks becomes increasingly urgent to ensure scalability, accountability, and evidence-based refinement.
Current M&E Landscape: Inconsistent and Underdeveloped
While initiatives such as Romania’s TeleDoc and Hungary’s eVita show potential in improving antenatal and postpartum care, their M&E mechanisms remain limited. TeleDoc collects some user feedback and antenatal adherence data, but lacks baseline comparisons and a formal performance framework, reducing its value for scale-up decisions (Varzaru et al., 2024). eVita similarly lacks a structured M&E strategy, with no publicly available metrics to assess its reach or operational impact (Solarevic et al., 2024).
In Poland, while digital health systems collect general usage data, they fail to disaggregate by region, gender, or service type. This lack of specificity makes it impossible to evaluate SRH engagement in rural areas or to guide resource targeting (Vieira & Câmara, 2024). These fragmented approaches contrast sharply with WHO recommendations, which emphasize integrated monitoring systems disaggregated by equity indicators (WHO, 2021; WHO, 2022).
Core barriers to effective M&E
Three major challenges limit effective M&E across the region:
- Absence of standardized indicators for tracking SRH-specific outcomes and engagement.
- Siloed data systems, with many pilot programs operating outside national health information systems (HIS).
- Lack of participatory feedback mechanisms, excluding end-users, community leaders, and frontline workers from the evaluation process.
Strengthening M&E: Global practices and local adaptation
WHO’s Digital Health Evaluation Framework (2021) and Digital Implementation Investment Guide (2020) offer adaptable models for the region. These recommend equity-focused metrics, user-inclusive evaluation, data system interoperability, and cost-effectiveness analysis to inform scale-up decisions.
Examples from Bangladesh’s Aponjon and India’s eSanjeevani demonstrate how real-time dashboards, participatory feedback loops, and disaggregated reporting can support policy alignment and continuous improvement (WHO, 2022).
Without robust M&E, digital health programs risk stagnation. When grounded in inclusive, transparent evaluation systems, however, they can become trusted, scalable components of public health infrastructure. The next section explores strategic policy actions, investment priorities, and regional cooperation mechanisms needed to drive equitable, long-term digital health transformation.
8. Future Directions for Scaling Digital Reproductive Health Tools in Rural Central Europe
As digital health gains global traction, rural Central Europe—particularly Poland, Romania, and Hungary—faces a critical opportunity to move from fragmented pilot programs to integrated, equitable health systems. Building on earlier analyses of infrastructure gaps, funding volatility, and cultural barriers, this section outlines strategic priorities for embedding digital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) tools into national health ecosystems.
Institutionalize digital SRH in national strategies
Despite growing digital health infrastructure, SRH remains peripheral in most national health policies. According to the WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health (2021), full integration into universal health coverage (UHC) and primary care is vital for long-term viability.
To address this, disconnect:
- SRH modules should be embedded within national eHealth systems, including clinical pathways and reimbursement structures for antenatal care, contraception counselling, and screenings.
- Digital tools must be explicitly recognized in national maternal and reproductive health strategies, ensuring inclusion in funding allocations and health indicators.
Prioritize accessibility through inclusive, low-tech design
Digital access remains uneven, particularly among older, low-income, and less-educated rural women. To bridge this divide:
- Governments should scale up SMS- and interactive voice response (IVR)-based tools, proven effective in models like India’s mMitra and Kenya’s Nivi (WHO, 2022; UNFPA, 2021).
- SRH platforms should offer multilingual and audiovisual content tailored to various literacy levels.
- Integration with trusted community health networks—such as midwives, NGOs, and primary care physicians—can support broader uptake and local trust.
Build cross-sector and regional funding models
To reduce reliance on time-limited donor funding, Central Europe must transition to sustainable financing models. Key strategies include:
- Leveraging EU platforms such as EU4Health, Digital Decade 2030, and NET4Age-Friendly for co-financing opportunities (Auer et al., 2024).
- Formalizing public-private partnerships (PPPs) with telecom firms and digital startups to ensure system expansion and interoperability.
- Aligning disbursement mechanisms with performance-based metrics and monitoring data.
Mainstream monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive learning
Scaling digital SRH requires responsive, data-driven evaluation systems. Current national M&E efforts remain fragmented and insufficiently disaggregated. To strengthen accountability:
- Countries should adopt the WHO Digital Health Atlas and Digital Implementation Investment Guide (WHO, 2021; WHO, 2022).
- SRH indicators must be broken down by gender, age, geography, and service utilization.
- Institutionalizing community feedback forums will ensure rural women’s needs shape iterative design and delivery.
Promote digital rights, trust, and cultural alignment
Sustainable scale depends on public trust—particularly around privacy and data governance. Given prevalent fears of reproductive data misuse in countries like Poland and Romania (Hu et al., 2025; ODI, 2022), safeguards are essential.
Recommended actions include:
- Enforcing privacy-by-design standards and aligning with GDPR and WHO digital ethics guidelines.
- Launching digital rights literacy campaigns in accessible formats.
- Engaging women, religious leaders, and healthcare workers in co-design to foster local relevance and legitimacy.
These five pillars form a strategic roadmap to move from pilot success to equitable scale. The final section will consolidate these insights into actionable policy and investment priorities for governments and regional stakeholders committed to advancing digital reproductive health equity in Central Europe.
9. Conclusion
Digital reproductive health tools have significant potential to address longstanding structural inequities in rural Central Europe. In countries such as Poland, Romania, and Hungary, these technologies offer critical avenues for expanding access to antenatal care, contraceptive counselling, and health education—particularly in regions where conventional services remain inadequate. Despite the early promise of initiatives like TeleDoc and eVita, uptake remains inconsistent. Key barriers include fragmented policy environments, limited digital access, and persistent mistrust in data governance (Varzaru et al., 2024; Solarevic et al., 2024; Hu et al., 2025).
10. References
(2022). Reproductive Justice and Digital Rights in Humanitarian Action.
World Health Organization. (2021). Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025.
World Health Organization. (2021). Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025. Geneva: WHO.
World Health Organization. (2021). Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020–2025.
