Technology Has and Will Shape The Future of Health Care in Africa

Africa’s development and fulfillment of her limitless potential is so often spoken about in futuristic and hopeful terms. We have become accustomed to speeches containing the statement “Africa is a continent with untapped human and natural resources”, not that any of this is a lie, but reality has been very damning especially in how some of the most basic needs and privileges of its people have been addressed. One of these important needs or privileges is healthcare and while recent progress, especially in endemic diseases like malaria, Ebola, Lassa fever and polio, has been laudable, the facts still do not make for the most pleasant reading. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 8 out of the 10 countries with the poorest healthcare systems are African. Africa shoulders the global burden of diseases, about 25% in fact, but has access to only about 3% of its health workers and 1% of its financial resources.

The nations of Africa in 2001 pledged to allocate at least 15% of their budgets to healthcare yet the result of that pledge has not been the most awe-inspiring. Yes, many countries have increased their spending on healthcare (according to the WHO, only 6 countries, namely Botswana, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, and Zambia, have met this target) but it has been marginal and the resultant effects have hardly been significant. Unfortunately marred by low budget allocations (in part due to competing priorities) and wastefulness, the desired results simply haven’t been attained. Only a small minority have proper access to the “higher-end” resources while the rest of the populace make due with what’s left.

However, there’s hope, from Rwanda setting up a health insurance scheme that covers over 90% of Rwandans to recent advances in the prevention and treatment of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. According to WHO, malaria fatality rates among all age groups fell by 66% between 2000 and 2015, and by 71% among children under the age of five (5). In that time frame, usage of mosquito nets also increased from 2% of the 667 million people to over 50% of 1 billion people, showing marked and significant improvement but more can be done to improve healthcare quality and delivery in Africa. Enter modern technology. One example is an ultrasound device called ‘Vscan’ produced by General Electric which has helped in combating one of Africa’s foremost healthcare issues, maternal deaths. This technology has allowed for quicker, more effective diagnosis of medical conditions that could often lead to the death of mother and/or child.

It is pertinent that we describe what exactly technology in healthcare is. No, there isn’t some post-apocalyptic agenda to replace all our esteemed medical professionals with robots and insert “mind-controlling” chips in the brain of human beings. According to WHO, a health technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives. It is a collaborative effort between the medical professionals and the providers of these tech devices (as well as the devices themselves, of course). Contributions and advancements in technology have greatly improved the lives of patients by providing quality, efficient and effective health services to patients.

Technology has made a lasting impact in the field of medicine and surgery, be it MRI scanners, hearing aids or artificial organs. Artificial organs created by 3D printing technology (for example the production of prosthetic limbs which is now significantly cheaper and easier to access), has allowed medical professionals to model patients’ bodies, make accurate diagnosis, and simulate various solutions to identified problems. This has greatly improved the lives of patients and improved service delivery by surgeons in the field. Telehealth services have made it possible for doctors and patients from different parts of the world to connect with one another, providing patients with access to some of the best healthcare services, saving time and cost (from travelling). Electronic record systems allow hospitals to store patient records in formats that are easy to access and retrieve; this is particularly useful for patients with documented pre-existing medical conditions being attended to by different professionals either within the same medical facilities or over different ones. Advancements in technology have made available robots that aid surgical procedures. This has contributed to quicker response times for patients in emergency as well as leaving the patient with significantly less post-surgery scars and reduced recovery time. Remote monitoring of patients vital signs and organs has also been made easier, reducing costs of hospital/consultancy services.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 2019, 97% of all data produced by hospitals each year goes unused. However, there’s a strong wave of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) currently disrupting and transforming every single sector of the world’s economy, from education to marketing, to finance, entertainment and of course healthcare delivery. Some common examples in healthcare are chatbots and Computer Aided Diagnostics systems (CAD). These systems can now mine significant amounts of historical patient data making it easier to offer precise, personalized medical services to each patient. According to WEF, one significant way in which data analysis has taken the medical field by storm is the reduction in X-ray rejection rates – which is often due to the poor quality of the images. Piloted at the University of Washington Medical Centre, software engineers have developed an application that helps to “fish out” the causes of these rejected images and have now automated a process that once required 7 hours to produce remotely useful results, this has reduced the rate of rejected images significantly.

Furthermore, in more recent times, a few major players/innovators around Africa have responded remarkably to the need for technology in healthcare to provide services and solve problems that have led to marked improvements in the delivery of qualitative health care services. From ZIPLINE, a Rwandan/U.S. startup making use of drones to facilitate blood delivery, to MDAAS, a health diagnostics startup that seeks to improve access to primary healthcare services for under-privileged communities, to MPHARMA, a Ghanaian based startup that has set out to give its African customers, who for long have suffered from the dangers of fake drugs, access to prescriptions and high quality medication at an affordable rate, to WELLAHEALTH, based in Nigeria combating the scourge of malaria by providing medical insurance (against malaria) to people who cannot afford a more comprehensive (or encompassing) health plan. From across our borders corporations like Microsoft have also contributed greatly to the use of AI and technology in general in combating diseases. Microsoft carried out a research project of cholera outbreaks and with the help of the data found that the deaths can be reduced from 50% to 1% if fresh water was made available to certain key or troubled areas. This type of information is vital both for governmental and non-governmental organizations as it helps them channel their resources more effectively.

In conclusion, technological advancement has and will without a doubt continue to vastly improve health care service delivery in Africa, of course there are challenges like investment and accessibility to these resources but those challenges are relatively easy to overcome with the right set of people, who have the right motivation, in key corridors of African development.