THE NEXT WAVE- PLATFORM & SOFTWARE FOR HEALTH SECTOR IN AFRICA
Had a fire side chat with Dr. S.Rasul- CEO of Sidilega Hospital on the topic of health technology in Botswana and Africa. Some of the questions we tackled included the limitations and benefits of #health #tech, whether health techs are here to stay, and whether this wave of pre-covid19 and post-covid19 startups will leave behind new business casualties and new services as the next waves hit the entire 54 countries in Africa.
Well, if you are building a health-tech startup catch some insights on the side!
1. Tech is the future in all space (health, retail, services, manufacturing etc) .
2. Improving Healthcare Service Provision in Africa requires strenthenging of the health business model and creation of new digital chains. Yep- dont mistaken though its still stands was before the start of covid- most patients are attached to either their doctor or hospital. If you build a software business in this sectors yes you could say to the users ‘doctors are encouraged to recommend booking platforms and educate their audience about the benefits of virtual interactions. But this isnt happening with the rapid speed at which covid19 disrupted the sector.
3. The development of digital products that have an immediate quick could be clustered into four categories: Health management; Diagnostics, monitoring and telehealth; Medical supply chains and logistics; Health financing and insurance.
4. Investment in the digital health sector by looking at the market from the perspective of: The number of actors in each vertical; The type of customers; The different business models; The potential for partnerships; Challenges and solutions.
5. The inadequacy of public service provision, as well as structural gaps including ill-equipped public services, low doctor-to-population ratio, and logistical inefficiencies is the rootcause why economies have experienced a covid-19 surge- which could for the future be curbed with the availability of digital technology to address local healthcare-related challenges.
6. COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on the conversation about Africa’s homegrown healthcare capacity, especially in regards to vaccines and access to basic provision, which has somewhat acted as a catalyst for digitally-enabled solutions as a viable alternative to be adopted by both the private and public sector.
7. The so called ‘medical brain drain’ is this a fact? It is reported as true actually- many African physicians are emigrating overseas in search of higher wages and better working conditions every year.
In 2015, four African nationalities — Egyptian, Ghanaian, Nigerian and South African — accounted for 86% of the African-trained physician workforce in the US. As a result, Africa loses an estimated $2 billion every year on training costs for African doctors that migrate to high-income countries such as the US the UK, Canada, and Australia.
8. The healthcare sector in Africa is largely dominated by government-led and donor-funded initiatives. There could be little interest of this funding into digitising ‘pen and paper’ processes. This on its is the greatest barrier for digitizing the future of healthare.
9. New type of software companies are emerging in parrallel. Thanks to the lowering price of sofware and hardware, new models are being explored by entrepreneurs, as companies begin leveraging partnerships to reduce set up and maintenance costs. This as it is being seen in a number of emerging business models, such as e-pharmacies, mobile clinics, and health management platforms. The opportunity to partner with other businesses to generate revenues, as opposed to trying to reach consumers directly, partly stems from the inability of many early-stage companies to monetise due to the limited disposable income and low rate of insurance.
10. In an industry that has traditionally struggled to attract private investment on the continent, healthtech-focused investors in this space are betting on innovative companies that are addressing the continent’s healthcare challenges to breach new market opportunities and drive the industry onto a path towards maturity and technological advancement.
11. Evaluating Africa’s medical supply chains- where the medical supply chain faces logistical inefficiencies such as weak inventory management, inefficient distribution networks, and lack of funding. Primary healthcare facilities often lack basic medications and the majority of the medical devices sent to the continent by the international community remain underutilised due to inadequate technical expertise or infrastructural limitations, such as patchy internet connectivity and unreliable electricity in rural areas.
12. Medical supply chain in its basic shouldnt be simply be as follows- Africa’s medical supply is heavily import-reliant, with more than half of its over-the-counter and prescription medication being imported.Why arent we setting up wholesalers and manufacturing in the continent?
13. Creating an enabling environment for African countries to further accelerate digital solutions in healthcare is a step for every country globally. How that gets achieved is by simple ; partnerships have proven pivotal for the companies to scale and build sustainable models.
14. In this context of our discussion with a view of Africa but thinking from Botswana- we concluded by (a) digital health ecosystem framework creation that leverages the Botswana strength (b) cultural element remains a significant obstacle to the establishment of digital healthcare solutions at large © exploring healthcare finance and insurance that leverages technology platform is key.
15. By way of departure- the challenge to Sidilega Hospital- How do you intend to build your hospital platform?
