New technology is enormously impacting Africa’s healthcare
Every single person on Earth requires healthcare.
And yet not every single person has access to it.
This is a travesty.
The private healthcare sector is booming in both jobs and revenue.
But it’s an industry steeped in politics and human rights issues.
A typical case of the haves and the have-nots, the healthcare sector needs to creatively find solutions to assist those who can’t afford medical care but who desperately need it.
Africa is one such place in the world where not everyone has the “luxury” of medical care. But thanks to growth in infrastructure, technological developments, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the African people, the healthcare sector has seen positive change.
There are a number of African startups who’ve recognised the need for change within the healthcare sector. They’re ensuring that everyone has access to all the medical assistance they need. These startups are ingenious in their ability to offer medical solutions to the African population, many of whom reside in rural areas and have little to no access to the internet except via a mobile phone. And a feature phone at that, meaning that SMS technology has needed to be harnessed for these solutions to work.
Here are a few African medical tech startups that are worth knowing about.
This company has set out to be the most comprehensive personal health record system in South Africa. It’s been indicated time and again that recorded patient history is critical to the future well being of a patient. When a new doctor is trying to assist the patient with the medical care they can quickly have access to the patient’s online records. This will give them important information about how to treat the patient.
This Kenyan-based startup that makes use of SMS technology. It is focused on mothers with infants and young children up to the age of five year’s old. It assists new mothers with tracking their child’s health through a series of SMSes that include health tips and simple diagnostic questions. This smart startup was a Nominet Trust 2015 winner.
This startup is from Stellenbosch, Cape Town and has the backing of a number of Fortune 500 companies. It was launched at the international tech event CES in 2015 and one short year later it partnered with Garmin to develop connected healthcare solution. LifeQ will record a patient’s personal health using computational systems. This allows specialists and specialist organisations to better understand the human body and create optimised solutions for health.
This startup is a bit different from the rest. TechnoVera is the brainchild of Neo Hutiri and its sole focus is reducing patient’s waiting time for chronic medications. It makes use of smart lockers as a means of delivery of chronic medication to the patient in need.
These are only some of the incredible startups that are changing the face of the healthcare industry in Africa. There’s a constant flood of new information on how Africa continues to exceed everyone’s expectations. Consider how drones are being used to assist those in rural areas with gaining access to chronic medication. Or how medical trucks, equipped in a similar fashion to food trucks, head out into the villages to tend to those in need. Transport solutions have been created for patients who would historically walk for hours, if not all day, to collect their medication from the nearest healthcare facility.
Africa is on the map when it comes to technology. The solutions, however, are simply a bit different from the likes of Europe, America, or Asia. The startup scene is burgeoning throughout the continent. With the help of foreign investment, African entrepreneurs will continue launching innovative, rule-bending entities that’ll make an enormous positive impact on the population.
If you’d like to know more about Africa’s growing technology sector and how it’s impacting every other sector then you need to get involved at AfricArena 2017. This conference is positioned to look into all sectors and discover who the innovators and trailblazers are. You’ll be able to find out how they have achieved these incredible feats and where they think Africa is heading in the near future. You can sign up today for this not-to-be-missed event.