Tech-Based Health Innovation in Africa
Digital health Technological innovations for Africa, from Africa.
Modern technology innovation has undoubtedly impacted almost every aspect of our life. Its role in the health sector is no different. With new advancements in biotechnology, better and effective ways to store and analyze health information, new drugs, and vaccine developments, effective diagnosis, improvement in patient-health worker communication, and the development of new treatment methodologies; technology has indeed made this sector more efficient, and in turn, improved patient care.
However, the reverse is the case in Africa. There is a dingy health situation due to the lack of healthcare investments in the continent. According to the World Health Organization, Africa carries 25% of the world’s disease burden, though its share of the global health expenditures is less than 1%. The health challenges in the continent range from access to quality healthcare, a massive exodus of healthcare professionals to Europe and North America; thus leading to limited human resources for its large population, distribution challenges to rural areas, lack of financial resources, ineffective national health insurance scheme, corruption in the public sector (as drugs which ought to be free are diverted by medical staffs to the private sector for sale), and the everchanging medical need of the population.
The emergence of new technologies through digital health, mobile medicine, and e-health are offering promising and refreshing approaches to help tackle some of the challenges facing Africa’s healthcare system. This offers an opportunity for client empowerment, better health decision making, cost-efficiency, and improving the accuracy of data diagnostic accuracy and treatment.
Over the last decades, we have seen how emerging initiatives such as e-health projects develop models and lower-cost. These are technically health innovations to tackle the health challenges and shortcomings. Though these projects have had some impact, much remains to be done. The fascinating thing about these projects is how they identify and bridge the gap between health and the use of mobile devices, by taking advantage of telecommunication infrastructure, network coverage, and mobile phone penetration to improve remote data collection, monitoring, commuting treatments, as well as responding to disease outbreaks and emergencies.
In the next paragraphs, I will mention some key benefits and ways health-tech is addressing these challenges.
Accessing Health Information, Improving Patient Connectivity and Communications
Information is vital if we plan on improving healthcare; reducing the impact of health emergencies, and increasing survival rates.
In Ghana, obtaining routine data by Ghana Health Service (GHS) from the various facilities was a challenge. Thus, to address the problem, GHS partnered with the University of Oslo to build the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2); a web-based user-friendly health management system. This new robust web-based electronic platform with a centralized health data repository replaced the tedious, time-consuming, paper-based reporting system. DHIMS2 enables biostatisticians to track and monitor, as well as compare performance across districts and act promptly if there are any signs of a potential emergency.
A similar interface, mTrac was rolled out in Uganda to tackle inadequate monitoring of drug stock. The mTrac system works primarily on mobile devices. This platform aids in data collection of various health indicators to help capture real-time monitoring of disease surveillance and drug stocks via SMS. To make it cost-friendly, mTRAC has a toll-free, SMS-based hotline. The information gathered helps biostatisticians to identify alerts, and make informed decisions on drug redistribution and disease response initiatives.
There are a couple of other similar platforms like mHealth which enable effective distribution of medical supplies in Kenya and Airtel Tanzania. They provide a free service that facilitates SMS messages about infant care to mothers and pregnant women. These digital technologies go a long way in delivering better healthcare in Africa.
Empowering the Health Workforce and the Public
It is said that knowledge is power. The health care system suffers from a shortage of staff and funding. There is also the problem of a lack of accurate health information to the public, to enable them to make informed health decisions. To tackle these problems, a few private and public e-health distance learning education program such as RAFT (a telemedicine and distance learning network in Africa), Kenya’s eLearning partnership with AMREF (an Africa-based health development organization) along with community health information banks such as Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) in Ghana, South Africa’s Hello Doctor, HiDoctor app in Nigeria, AIDS No More in Kenya, and health Academy Project in the Gambia were established.
These programs can be flexible, cost-friendly, and provide essential healthcare information and advice. They also solve some limitations associated with traditional classroom-based learning and potentially support health professionals remotely.
Delivering and Tracking Health Services
Zipline, an American startup that partnered with Rwanda was the first in the world to use drone technology to deliver blood and track essential commodities in Rwanda. This tackles the rural distribution challenges and replaces longer, expensive road deliveries due to the difficult terrain. Flying Doctors Nigeria established by Dr. Ola Orekunrin is another medical emergency service that specializes in air ambulance, medevac, and provides medical services to remote places in Nigeria using high-grade technology tools. This successful innovation led to a chain of reactions in other African countries such as the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) and Naa Adorkor Yawson, an executive at Zipline Ghana to follow suit.
Other notable mentions include Uganda’s mobile health system; mTRAC which is also used to track and report on the medicine stocks across the country, Ghana’s mPedigree which uses a simple sticker on the package to verify the authenticity of drugs, and SMS for life Program led by Novartis.
A.I Diagnostics
Birth asphyxia is one of the world’s three leading causes of infant mortality according to World Health Organization. Ubenwa, a Nigerian Artificial intelligence (A.I) application developed by Charles Onu detects asphyxia by analyzing the cries of babies and makes a prognosis. Ubenwa aims to address early health challenges within the first two years of a child’s life while bridging the gap for communities that do not have access to clinical alternatives.
In Uganda, Matibabu was developed to diagnose malaria without a blood sample. It detects Plasmodium in the red blood cells by clipping on the fingers and shining a red beam of light on the skin and display the results on the app. Other A.I. diagnostics tools include a Ugandan biomedical smart vest called Mama-Ope which reformed early diagnostics of pneumonia. This smart vest measures all vital signs simultaneously while reducing diagnostic time.
Other Health-Tech Innovation
Pelebox, a smart locker system in South Africa that dispenses medicine to patients with chronic illness. An SMS with a unique code is sent to the patient to open the locker whenever their medications are ready. Health-tech has the potential to give the population good and affordable health services, as well as more control for their personal well-being.
The integration of these technologies has improved access to health care in rural areas, improved quality of services, aid eLearning and access to health information, and helps in data management. Although health-tech has gained a lot of traction globally as the engine of innovation in this sector, there are still challenges that hinder its deployment from the adoption of these new technological tools, weak health system, inability to secure long-term funding of resources, lack of a regulating process, lack of a unified scalable technology-based system, to poor infrastructures such as unstable power supply and internet connectivity.
A detailed solid legal framework and regulatory system need to be put in place to develop and guide policies as well as tackle ethical issues such as data and patent rights that can arise. These systems will only work if policymakers work proactively to draft smart policies. Subsequently, since health-tech intertwines two different sectors, there is a need to bridge the communication and knowledge gaps for rapid development.
Furthermore, more advocacy needs to be done for stronger implementation and development of health-Tech strategies. Though, sustainability remains the key challenge, the presence of social, environmental, and economic determinants of health are also needed for the system to work at an optimal level. These health innovations have shown us that they are a means to an end and not an end in themselves, thus presenting an opportunity for countries on the continent to increase their domestic capacity to solve health challenges and move beyond foreign aid and dependency.
The future and solution to the problems faced depend on our decision to leverage these new technology-based tools to transform traditional healthcare delivery models. Like Ladi Awosika once said, “They have to understand health is wealth, and even small investment in technology will make a big, long-term difference in Africa”.
