Increasing Access to Healthcare Locally

 Increasing Access to Healthcare Locally

In Africa, a large number of individuals lack proper access to healthcare. How are regional trailblazers altering this?

There are significant geographical differences in the amount of healthcare coverage, and the majority of developing nations have not fully met their citizens' fundamental healthcare demands.

The UHC Service receive Index, a crucial indicator of how easily people may receive the healthcare they require, gives Sub-Saharan Africa a score of just 44.49 out of 100, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is significantly lower than both the global average of 67 and the high-income country average of 83.

Long hailed as solutions for enhancing care, digital health and advances in disease detection are. But they must be adjusted to local situations in order to be as effective as possible in Africa.

For instance, a 2021 study of telemedicine use in Sub-Saharan Africa noted a variety of adoption hurdles that are particular to several geographic groupings within the larger region.

Fortunately, early-stage investment in African healthtech has been rising rapidly, and local businesses in the field are enhancing health throughout the continent. 

Electronic Health

In Uganda, Stre@mline is utilising the strength of existing organisations to save and pay insurance premiums collectively through mobile money. These groups include women's groups, churches, and schools. In addition, the business provides an electronic medical record platform and an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that locates regional health trends.

Waspito in Cameroon is in the process of linking patients with medical specialists and diagnostic centres. Patients use their smartphones to find doctors in their area and schedule in-person visits. Then, lab technicians might visit them at their door to conduct simple examinations. A social network that doctors use to examine FAQs and post content on significant medical issues underpins this service.

Even though the use of digital health is expanding, receiving care in person has advantages. Because of this, Kenya's TIBU Health is bridging the gap between traditional healthcare and new technologies. The start-up has its own cutting-edge clinics as well as at-home and online care options. It offers medical advice, lab work, COVID-19 testing, and immunisations among other services.

Quro Medical of South Africa is constructing "hospitals-at-home" employing telematics and remote patient monitoring in addition to conventional services. Patients are assisted by on-call ambulance service, home oxygen, virtual "visits" with medical specialists, and 24/7 vital sign monitoring. For an extra fee, daily in-person visits, blood tests, and wound dressings can be included.

Finally, Insightiv has created a web-based platform in Rwanda that enables doctors to see medical imaging remotely while AI aids in the faster and more accurate analysis of patient data.

Early detection and prevention

Beyond new approaches to care delivery, prevention and early disease identification are essential for enhancing health outcomes.

Respiratory infections pose a considerable concern in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, MamaOpe in Uganda has created acoustic tools and algorithms that can detect respiratory illness symptoms. The company's device is applied to a patient by healthcare experts who enter the patient's age. Then, recorded sounds are compared to illness signs such heart rate, aberrant lung sounds, and respiration rate.

Innovators are looking to machine learning for healthcare insights beyond new diagnostic technology. Predictive analytics and alternative data are being used in South Africa by Palindrome Data to model health risks for people who don't have access to conventional healthcare. Machine learning was used on anonymized, patient-level data on HIV programmes in South Africa in a 2022 project in which the corporation took part. This detected patients who might stop receiving care or whose viral load might not be controlled.

The last area of attention for improving health in Africa is vaccinations. Zimbabwe's VaxiGlobal is using facial recognition to verify vaccine rollouts without the requirement for official identification. With the help of this technology, patients register, and after receiving a vaccination, medical professionals produce a digital certificate that is biometrically associated with the patient. This is safely uploaded to the cloud, where verifiers can retrieve the patient's vaccination history by scanning their face. The solution was created specifically for places where there are few mobile users, erratic medical records, and spotty internet access.