What Happens When You Bring Innovation to Underdeveloped Healthcare?
I am a world citizen, but I am also an American citizen. I’ve spent the last nine months outside of my country where I have been virtually immune and unaware of the costs of healthcare. I purchased my traveler’s insurance, which costs me $40 per month. And good health has blessed me in that the entire time I was gone, I never had to use it.
Now, I am back in the United States where my traveler’s plan is null and void. As luck would have it, I spent three weeks sick — could not breathe, coughing so much my lungs hurt, spitting up green mucus, wearing a mask around my family — kind of sick.
This sickness brought me back to reality about the state of healthcare and the desperate need for it.
After three weeks, I gave in and went to the doctor paying about $250 USD as an uninsured person. I was not shocked, but handing over $250 for 15 minutes of one person’s time and one bottle of antibiotics appalled me. I experienced some fear relative how the access to care and the costs of healthcare affect a person both physically and emotionally.
It has me questioning the state of global healthcare. What happens to people in countries, where the healthcare systems are less developed?
Most developing nations face an ugly healthcare dichotomy
The economic growth in the emerging markets have created a wealth and health gap between the urban and rural communities.
Economic opportunities are concentrated in cities. The high-income middle-class population in these countries demand Western-style healthcare with comfortable upscale facilities, leaving little infrastructure for the development of healthcare programs in poor, rural areas. Medical facilities equipped with modern technology, specialized equipment, and resources are private and reserved for those who can afford additional expenses. These are the middle to upper class and medical tourists.
In addition to this, healthcare infrastructure in the majority of rural communities is decades behind their urban counterparts. Imagine the efficiency of doctors where access to electricity and clean water is sparse — sometimes limited to 2 hours per day, at times non-existent.
Startups worldwide are looking for better options for rural and remote communities. Seedstars Singapore winner Graphene has developed the Coronis patient care management system which assists in managing remote medical care schedules by collecting data and using it to identify the right medical personnel.
The Nigerian Seedstars winner, Kangpe, allows patients to receive doctors’ medical advice for symptoms, disease diagnosis, and treatment through text message for a small subscription fee. They are even working with Facebook’s Free Basics program to ensure their services are available in locations where the internet and data access is limited.
Another startup, TalkSpace, uses text messaging to provide remote mental healthcare to certified therapists on an as-needed basis.
While these companies offer great options for making doctors more accessible, there is still a lot to be done in order create a true balance of accessibility.
The patient-to-doctor ratio experience makes receiving healthcare difficult
Seedstars Karachi winner, Docthers, allows female doctors connect with patients in rural areas through videoconference
Family doctors in the public sector have too many patients to handle. The Rockefeller Foundation suggests that, on average, countries with fewer than 2.5 healthcare professionals per 1000 population have a significant healthcare shortage.
The 57 countries that fall below this threshold all come from emerging markets: Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala. The greatest deficiencies are in Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia. The largest relative needs dominate sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of healthcare workers would need to increase by 124% to meet the threshold.
Even if many countries provide a state-run free healthcare system for all, the long waiting lines and lack of infrastructure and human resources in public healthcare inhibit an efficient access to health services.
Startups like Zocdoc are using technology to allow patient to browse schedules of nearby doctors and choose appointment times that best suit them while avoiding these long lines. Other companies are working to use logistics software, like Medicast, to allow sick patients to request in-home care and prevent overcrowding.
These data should sufficiently prove that public health desperately needs innovators. What are the missing pieces to global quality healthcare? Access to medical care is a human right worth fighting for.
The sad and unjust truth of global healthcare is that we now have the technology to solve the most prevalent diseases. Nevertheless, people are dying from curable diseases, not because we don’t know the medicines and care necessary to help them. Healthcare is simply too sparse and too expensive in some of places.
This year at our Seedstars Summit we are hosting a workshop to discover how startups are working with healthcare providers around the world to develop a more sustainable healthcare system. We will talk about the innovation going into solving the fundamental problems, the stakeholders involved, and the forward thinkers making a difference.
Want to be a part of this conversation? We always welcome great minds in going together to make the future a better place, so make sure you request your executive ticket here.
