Dear subscriber,
Some of the biggest barriers in last-mile healthcare delivery across Africa include shortages of skilled health workers, weak internet connectivity, limited electricity access and lack of specialist care. A new wave of AI-powered tech tackles this challenge.
Treezer Michelle Atieno - Editor
Today we review new AI-powered tools that are supporting healthcare workers to extend healthcare access in underserved and resource-constrained settings. They include Heidi which is a health data tool, Mamabox and Nano OB Assist which are early maternal health intervention tools, and the Climate Health Vulnerability Assessment Tool (CHAT).
Two of these tools, Mamabox and Nano OB Assist, support maternal health outcomes in rural areas. Mamabox gives mothers instant maternal health guidance without requiring constant in-person consultations while Nano OB Assist provides on-site ultrasound with less skilled workers.
The remaining tools, Heidi automates clinical documentation so doctors spend less time on paperwork and CHAT helps health facilities conduct climate vulnerability assessments digitally.
Our take: These tools are effective additions for Africa because they support infrastructure limits in the healthcare sector…Read more (2 min)
Africa could lose more than $1 trillion over the next two decades by continuing to import medical products instead of building them locally, according to a new Africa CDC report. It reframes local pharma manufacturing as one of the continent’s biggest industrial and investment opportunities in the next two decades, if it can own its research.
Africa imports over 94% of its medical products and technologies. The few operational pharma industries across the continent major in formulation and fill and finish stages of manufacturing. This means a high dependence on imported research and active pharma ingredients.
The report argues that little investment in early stage manufacturing research is not just costing Africa money. Africa is losing the entire economic ecosystem attached to pharmaceuticals like factories, research labs, clinical trials, skilled jobs, supply chains, exports and private capital formation.
Our take: For pharmaceutical manufacturing to succeed in Africa, the continent must own early stage research and the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients…Read more (2 min)
More than $3 billion was invested into pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing in Africa in the past year. In this op-ed, Ethiopis Tafara, the Vice President for Africa at the International Finance Corporation, examines why local pharmaceutical manufacturing could become a major jobs engine for the continent alongside improving health security.
“Health manufacturing can be part of the unemployment answer. It can help meet the jobs challenge while advancing the African Union’s ambition to ensure 60% of the medicines and diagnostics used in Africa are made in Africa by 2040,” says Mr Tafara.
He argues that pharmaceutical manufacturing will only scale if countries build strong systems around it, including infrastructure, regulation, procurement, logistics and private investment. According to him, Africa’s pharmaceutical expansion will depend on whether governments and investors can build industries capable of creating skilled jobs.
Read the full opinion…Read more (2 min)
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The World Health Organisation and the African Medicines Agency launch a new framework to strengthen access to quality-assured health products in Africa
Events
🗓️ Join the 10th Healthcare Innovation Summit Africa in SA (May 28)
🗓️ Join the International Conference on Non-communicable Diseases (June 23)
🗓️ Attend the International Conference on Public Health in Africa (Nov 23)
Jobs
🧑⚕️Be the Health & Nutrition Technical Advisor at World Relief (Rwanda)
🧑⚕️Apply to be the Director, Digital Health and Informatics at Last Mile Health (Kenya)
🧑⚕️Join IPPF Africa as the Country Lead-Health Systems Strengthening (Burundi)
Various
💉Gates Foundation commits $15 million to support Ebola response
💉 Sudan deploys malaria vaccines after 22,000 deaths
💉 Roche licensing pact clears generic drugmakers to manufacture flu drug
Seen on LinkedIn
James Avoka, Health Workforce Team Lead at the World Health Organisation, says, “Africa must move from producing health workers to planning, employing, supporting and retaining them where they are most needed.”