The Case Against Digital Maximalism in Asian Healthcare

Abstract

Digital technology is now inseparable from medical practice, and Asia stands at the center of this transformation. Yet the prevailing response to healthcare challenges has been the uncritical addition of digital tools — a pattern I call digital maximalism. Digital maximalism produces cognitive overload, alert fatigue, and clinician burnout without proportionate gains in care. Good design, while necessary, cannot address the cumulative burden of many tools; the problem is one of quantity as well as quality. I propose digital frugality — the deliberate, disciplined use of technology, and the deliberate removal of what does not serve the patient — as a corrective.  Asia must chart a different course from Western models, given deep disparities in infrastructure and literacy, and raises unresolved policy questions on tariffs, insurance, platform architecture, service units, and accountability.