Prioritizing Digital Health Technologies for Remote Inland Communities: A MCDM Approach using Fuzzy AHP

Reliable healthcare delivery is still difficult in inland remote areas, where distance from major service centers and weak clinical infrastructure restrict timely access to care. This study analyses seven different technology solutions to conclude whether they can be applicable to such unserved areas. We use a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to mitigate uncertainty in expert evaluations across four key criteria: Infrastructure Resilience, Clinical Effectiveness, Usability, and Cost-Efficiency. The evaluated options include Telemedicine Apps, Remote Diagnostic Kits, Wearable Vital Sensors, Offline AI Chatbots, Digital Health Kiosks, Cloud-based EHR, and Medical Delivery Drones. This analysis makes us conclude that Digital Health Kiosks and Offline AI Chatbots come with top ranks, mainly because of their ability to be used without a stable net connection in such areas. Medical Delivery Drones also come with lowest priority scores, mainly because of their high operation costs and difficulties in such areas with geographical constraints. These findings suggest that for remote inland communities, technological reliability and offline functionality outweigh the benefits of high-bandwidth, real-time clinical platforms. These findings provide a strategic roadmap for policymakers and healthcare providers to allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the selected tools are not only technologically advanced but also culturally and structurally compatible with the unique constraints of remote populations.