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Prior to the pandemic, the telemedicine market in Africa and the Middle East had been projected to grow to over US$ 5 billion in 2025, with a CAGR of 10.8% over the next five years.
COVID-19 has since accelerated its adoption across Africa – yet questions remain over how best to regulate to ensure data protection and patient safety.
Data emerged frequently in conversation throughout Omnia Health Live Africa. The region's industry leaders view data as a major opportunity to understand healthcare better across different contexts, determine where the gaps lie, and build better solutions and systems.
According to Estelle Mbadiwe, Founding Partner – Ducit Blue Solutions based in Nigeria, data is key to understanding current strengths and weaknesses in the healthcare system in different African countries, especially as they progress through the pandemic and beyond.
Through understanding where the opportunities lie, healthcare officials will be able to make better-informed decisions beyond public health emergencies.
This includes developing new healthcare strategies, or even building a new health system altogether.
At present only the tip of the data "iceberg" is analysed, leaving much work to do.
Field epidemiologist Dr Abiodun Egwuenu, also based in Nigeria as AMR Programme Manager – Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, advocates a similar approach, believing it important to focus on the data that is needed to drive improvement and see where there are gaps in infection prevention and control (IPC).
However, data alone is not always enough. Dr Sanjana Bhardwaj, MD, Chief of Health and HIV – UNICEF Nigeria, revealed that while UNICEF has access to considerable health data, “everything under the sun”, including where facilities are located, performance and indicators, it’s not possible to change the trajectory of results for women, children and communities without other sectors playing a role.
To enable more efficient resourcing planning and prioritisation, UNICEF is currently working with Nigeria state governments and the state department for planning and research and statistics to develop a portal that has health data with schools and water points plotted in too.
Dr Bhardwaj adds that the GIP mapping and data collection systems from community level upwards, that were originally developed to fight polio, have quickly and easily been leveraged in Nigeria’s COVID-19 response.
Through the data sample, a better understanding has been developed around transportation systems and mechanisms – where the bottlenecks are for example – and preparedness by the facility, for example, checklists completed for oxygen and commodities.
Doctor from UNICEF mission obtaining information from local people
Efforts are ongoing to see how this platform can be made sustainable, not only for national outbreak response but beyond.
Charles Wachira, Software Developer – IBM Research, shares details of a similar system powered by AI. IBM Research is building a system to support intervention planning in Africa. Originally, machine intelligence was used to explore more effective malaria policy interventions.
The primary goal of the system is to generate insights: decision-makers then use AI to interrogate a high-dimensional model. It's powered by AI, he explained, because it's "hard to determine what to do" without it. Professor Chetty, CEO – KwaZulu Natal Managed Care Coalition Ltd in South Africa, also sees an opportunity to improve healthcare through harnessing data. In his view, telehealth is a powerful opportunity to collect data for making changes in the healthcare system.
He believes that it may also be used to benefit patients: doctors may for example remotely collect data and implement the changes required to treat chronic illness.
Earlier in 2020, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) amended its guidelines for telemedicine to allow physicians or therapists to use phone or video calls to treat patients.
The new guidelines, permissible in circumstances when there is an already established practitioner-patient relationship, were made applicable during the pandemic only.
In Kenya, a proliferation of telehealth services has emerged during the pandemic – including digital health platform Vezeeta, who stood out in the market by offering an integrated telehealth service with in-person consultations as opposed to virtual alone (thus supporting the continuum of care).
Vezeeta also soft-launched in Nigeria during the pandemic, taking advantage of the country’s own thriving tech startup environment and the opportunity to achieve impact at scale.
Concerns, however, remain over patient safety and data protection, while the emergence of platforms such as Zoom and WhatsApp for teleconsultations raise questions around data privacy.
Akinoso Olujimi Coker, Chief Executive Officer – Lagoon Hospitals, comments that with the rise of cross-border teleconsultations, it is important to ensure that practising doctors have the right credentials to ensure patient safety, explaining that “one can easily foresee a scenario where an Egyptian doctor is looking after a Nigerian patient”.
According to Nana Frimpong, VP, Africa – Vezeeta, the answer lies in a telehealth policy framework that allows patients to safely access doctors across Africa – provided they are licensed and held to the same standards.
Indeed, a well-designed telehealth policy framework, he adds, could prove “revolutionary” for healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, where there remains a shortage of doctors. It would see greater and faster adoption of telehealth solutions in Africa – so long as policies and legislation are in favour of expanding access.
Katlego Mothudi, Managing Director – Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa, believes that electronic health records and the protection of personal information should also be addressed through laws that support telehealth.
Recognised as an early adopter and frontrunner of technology and innovative ICT solutions, Kenya is especially dominant in the fintech space – and this has aided the pandemic response. Nana Frimpong, VP, Africa – Vezeeta points to the example of mobile money transfer service M-PESA as an example of this, which has grown to become the most successful mobile money application in the developing world. Commenting on supply chain issues in the pandemic, Njide Ndili, Country Director – PharmAccess Foundation highlights how M-PESA has been “extremely instrumental” in enabling cashless transactions between vendors and suppliers of goods and services, while Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom (the “home” of M-PESA) allowed transactions under 10 dollars to be free of charge. Mobile money has been successful across the continent.
Ndili adds that Africa’s innovation potential may even surpass Silicon Valley and Singapore in the coming years.
It’s a market of 1.2 billion people, and if successful in markets such as Nigeria, Ghana or South Africa it’s relatively easy to export this to other areas of the continent.
Another factor in Africa’s favour, she stresses, is that Africans are “extremely resilient”.
From the perspective of Laurie Fuller, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor – Stanford Seed, it’s interesting to see Africa transfer technologies to the US. Medical product delivery startup Zipline for example initially matched blood with hospitals in Africa (Rwanda and Ghana) through the use of a high tech solution – delivery by drone. Zipline is now doing the same in the US. She adds that the use of low-tech when integrated with high-tech solutions is especially empowering in Africa
She offers as an example LifeBank, a company that matches blood with hospitals through using the low-tech approach of motorcycles or “blood riders” in combination with Google Maps.
