Digital Healthcare Africa Innovation & COVID19 response

State of Health in Africa 

As the African region battles with shortage of health facilities, hospitals, health workers it presents a huge digital health opportunity for the global, local pharma companies, governments and is also a hot spot for social impact entrepreneurs. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 13% of the world’s population yet bears 24% of the global disease burden and has only 2% of the world’s doctors. By 2030, non-communicable diseases are projected to be the leading cause of death in Africa. Only 5 African countries (Libya 67th, Tunisia 75th, Mauritius 79th, Seychelles 93rd, Algeria 99th) feature in top 100 countries out of 195 countries on health performance indicators in The Lancet’s 2018 Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

41 out of 54 African countries have embarked on a national digital health program or eHealth strategies. The continent has a 39% smart phone penetration with estimation to grow to 66% in 2025. Mobile money market of sub-Saharan Africa has become an epicenter having half of all mobile money registered accounts globally and furthering financial inclusion across the continent. Due to the diverse region, populations need tailored digital content in their own language to access to health-care systems but also for disease prevention. 

African Market

Africa is not one unified market, but 54 distinct ones with different dynamics in terms of their market size, growth trajectory, macroeconomic landscape, legal structure, and political complexities. However, 37 percent of African consumers are concentrated in 30 cities. As an entire continent, its spending is 1% of the world health expenditure. In the past 10 years, ten countries have delivered more than two-thirds of Africa’s total GDP. Highest Per Capita Pharma spending came from Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, and Tunisia

African Digital Healthcare Disruptors

Emerging technologies such as the IoT, wearables, AI, sensors have opened new possibilities such as Telemedicine, remote tracking and monitoring of individuals’ health in far off places. There are already 9 health tech startups that have raised over $1m from VC Funding. These startups are using mobile phones to provide maternal health supportin South Africa, detect fake drugs in Ghana or access a digital health-financing platform in Kenya whilst improvement in logistics data for real-time monitoring of disease prevalence, medicine stock-outs and health service delivery complaints means medicines supplies are ensured in Uganda with mTrac.

Drones being used to transport blood and medical supplies in Malawi. Rwanda, the first African country to use an app for medical care, partnered with @Zipline ; a US-based company that operates the world’s only drone delivery system for urgent hospital logistics such as blood and vaccine in 2016 to enable doctors in the country to order via text message and get items delivered by a drone. This even led to building an academy to teach about drones, data and their applications.

REMA is an Ivorian digital health startup founded by Dr. Sedric Degbo. REMA is a remote medical collaboration service dedicated to African doctors aims to improve the quality of medical decisions. The app allows African doctors around the continent to publish, discuss, resolve patient cases and collaborate in real time to make better medical decisions.

Mobihealth founded by an NHS physician, Funmi Adewara is revolutionizing access and delivery of healthcare across Africa through its telemedicine app which connects users to over 100k medical experts from the US, UK and other carefully selected countries of the world within minutes for video consultations, investigation, prescription, treatment and referrals at the convenience of patient's home 24/7, the same way they do their mobile banking and flight bookings. They have improved time taken for diagnosis and treatment, reduce hospital congestions by more than 60%, and reduce the cost of treatment significantly with a low-cost subscription plans that cover patient's healthcare cost for the year.

Public Private Partnerships

Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the South African government to introduce an education program for maternal, newborn, and child health that operates via mobile-phone messaging.

Likewise Phillips has partnered with the Zambian and Dutch governments to modernize more than 70 Zambian hospitals, helping to install and maintain diagnostic and imaging equipment and provide training for local medical staff.

African Health & Wellness Insur Tech company that made it big outside Africa

Discovery, a company from South Africa pioneered health-insurance model that would make people healthier by incentivizing and using behavioral economics. It turns out that three lifestyle choices (smoking, poor nutrition, and poor physical activity) contribute to four conditions (diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and lung disease) that drive over 50 percent of mortality every year. Their Vitality program which is a complete wellness system tracks everything from physical activity to nutrition over the course of a person’s life and connects them to gyms. Customers earn points by logging their workouts with fitness devices from Nike+, Fitbit, and others. These sync up with Vitality directly, through a computer, or with mobile apps on smartphones. When you go to our partner grocery stores, the healthy food is clearly demarcated on the shelf, and you get a 25 percent discount at the register when you swipe your Vitality card. This African startup is working in UK and Asia pacific region, US and Europe.

COVID19 Response

African startups and corporates are responding to COVID-19 by co-creating innovative solutions together. From Building 3D respirators, mobile E Health solutions, enhancements in more inclusive mobile payment solutions, food delivery services to promote contactless e-commerce. The coronavirus and lockdowns are shining a light on the country’s healthcare inadequacies as it affects everyone encouraging more people to join to support.

Some of the digital health initiatives and innovations that have either born out of the pandemic or being utilized:

- Helium, a health startup offers a product suit that digitizes data, formalizes monetization and enables telemedicine for health care systems in Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana. Their MyHelium Patient app facilitates appointments and information sharing between healthcare providers and citizens. They signed up more than 360 hospitals to their platform as COVID19 hit Africa. Also, recently raised a $10m Series A round which they will use to expand to North and East Africa in Morocco, Rwanda, Kenya etc.

- Ghana's e-health startup @Redbird launched a COVID-19 tracker that enables users to self-report symptoms without needing to visit a health care facility

- South African government is using WhatsApp to run an interactive chatbot which can answer common queries about COVID-19 myths, symptoms and treatment

- Nigeria, the on-demand health information platform @Wellvis has created an easy-to-use app called COVID-19 Triage Tool. The free app allows users to self-asses their coronavirus risk category based on their symptoms and exposure history. 

@Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, teamed up with car manufacturer @Kiira Motors to produce ventilators