Antifragile by design: Using antifragility as a guiding principle in future rural eHealth implementation & evaluation

Antifragility as a concept was first introduced in the 2012 book Antifragile by Nicholas Taleb [1]. Taleb posits that an antifragile unit stands to gain, rather than be harmed from volatility [1]. Examples of antifragility include bones becoming stronger from small stressors, our immune system building strength from fighting of viruses, and muscle mass being built through continuous use. This analogy can be extended to rural eHealth1 interventions, where small failures would strengthen the system as it learned from past mistakes, rather than making it weaker and leading to overall failure. The future of health services delivery in rural communities could depend on being able to effectively implement eHealth interventions and see them scale-up to regional or national initiatives.