West Africa is undergoing a significant healthcare transformation thanks to the global health technology revolution that has gained momentum post-pandemic. This wave of innovation is bringing about a positive shift, offering hope and optimism for the future of healthcare in the region.

The region faces various challenges, such as poor infrastructure, a lack of trained healthcare professionals, and economic disparities.

Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire struggle with both infectious diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis, as well as increasing rates of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Despite facing challenges, the region is experiencing a positive transformation in healthcare. This improvement is largely due to the dedicated efforts of healthcare professionals, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Their efforts in utilising healthcare technologies play a vital role in transforming the healthcare landscape in West Africa, and their contributions are immensely valuable.

This article explores the innovative technologies changing West Africa’s healthcare system, highlighting successful projects that improve access to care and patient outcomes.

Tools like telemedicine, electronic health records, and AI-powered healthcare innovations are helping to bridge gaps and empower individuals to manage their health, signalling a positive shift for healthcare in the region.

Digital Health Innovations

In regions where physical access to healthcare facilities can be daunting due to lack of proximity to healthcare services, telemedicine has emerged as a game-changer.

About 40% of adults in West Africa are now connected to the internet, significantly enhancing the use of digital health services.

Telemedicine and online consultations have become more accessible, allowing patients to receive medical advice without travelling long distances.

Telemedicine And Mobile Health (mHealth)

Telemedicine startups in Africa are bridging the massive gaps in healthcare delivery, especially in regions where access to healthcare, particularly expert care, is lacking.

Mobihealth, one of West Africa’s foremost telemedicine platforms, has been utilising digital technology to connect patients to essential medical services since 2017.

With its 20 integrated telehealth clinics offering remote consultations, diagnostics, and access to specialist care via its robust digital health platform, it has provided healthcare services at different levels to underserved rural areas in Nigeria that are disconnected from essential healthcare services.

Mobile health applications enable individuals to consult with healthcare professionals quickly through their mobile devices, reducing the need to travel to the hospital.

Healthlane is another Telemedicine startup in Nigeria that utilises an API model where companies with just one line of code can integrate their AI-Powered Telemedicine services into their existing digital structure and provide telemedicine services seamlessly.

In Cameroon, Waspito also connects patients to healthcare professionals and services with its mobile health platform, which integrates medical consultations, laboratory services, and access to healthcare information.

This shift improves healthcare access and empowers people to take charge of their health and stay connected to the broader digital health network.

Other telemedicine startups in West Africa transforming the digital health ecosystem include iWello, CribMD, Tremendoc, DRO Health, HealthConnect247, Clafiya, Doctor247, JEAY Healthcare, and a host of other emerging digital health startups leveraging innovative digital health technologies to transform healthcare in Africa.

As internet infrastructure improves, the focus on digital literacy and training for providers and the public becomes increasingly essential. This emphasis on digital literacy empowers individuals to fully understand and utilise the potential of digital health technologies, enhancing health outcomes across West Africa.

Digital Health Literacy

Digital health literacy is also an important point in the digital health ecosystem that needs to be considered.

As digital health solutions and technologies become more widespread, the smooth integration of these technologies into the existing structure requires healthcare professionals who are literate enough to understand the importance of these technologies.

Carecode Digital Health Hub, a capacity-building startup for healthcare professionals in Africa, is among the first digital literacy hubs in Africa to approach digital health innovation by building the capacities of healthcare professionals in digital health literacy.

Ensuring digital health literacy among providers and patients is critical in successfully integrating digital health technologies in any region that wants to leverage these technologies in healthcare delivery.

Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are digital versions of patient medical records that include crucial information like age, medical history, and diagnoses. They enhance patient data management and improve accessibility among healthcare providers, reducing the risk of medical errors and improving continuity of care through interoperable systems.

When securely shared, as demonstrated by initiatives like Helium Health in West Africa, EHRs provide a comprehensive view of patient histories, which is vital for effective diagnosis and treatment.

This technology improves patient care and safety and supports population health management by leveraging data for public health initiatives and health policy decisions.

AI And Machine Learning In Healthcare

The potential of AI and machine learning in healthcare is not just a possibility but a promising reality that can revolutionise healthcare in West Africa, bringing hope and optimism for the future and the potential for significant improvements in patient care.

Disease Diagnosis, Prediction And Decision Making

Healthcare in Africa produces a lot of untapped data. With the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning, this massive gold mine of valuable data can be harnessed to create solutions that transform lives.

Xolani Health, located in Nigeria, uses its AI-powered digital health solution to transform Radiological studies in West Africa, making diagnosis and decision-making easier and more efficient for radiologists.

In Code’Voir, Zencey’s digital health platforms integrate AI patient and doctor assistants to make consultation and interaction easier and smoother. Zencey’s API can be easily integrated into existing digital health products, giving users access to their health language models.

AI For Medical Communication

AI is empowering healthcare professionals in the crucial aspect of medical communication. With speech-to-text AI-powered technologies, healthcare professionals can now have more time for productive activities, as documentation in healthcare has been proven to take up a lot of time.

IntronHealth’s innovative speech-to-text technology utilises AI to transcribe doctors’ speech into text. As one of the first native speech-to-text AI technologies in Africa, IntronHealth’s solution is set to revolutionise the AI medical communications landscape in West Africa and throughout the continent. While clinical speech transcription is common in the developing world, it remains virtually absent in Africa, giving innovative ideas like that of IntronHealth a fertile ground to thrive and expand.

Hardware And Device Innovations

Portable And Affordable Medical Devices

Low-cost, affordable, and handy medical devices have proven beneficial for health improvement in Africa and globally.

Introducing these low-cost medical check devices has helped in emergency health situations and can be said to be safe as components of first aid bows. They have also been modified and styled into fashion, such as the digital watch that helps calculate heart rates.

The Cardiopad, a device for cardiovascular exams, has been pivotal in Cameroon, allowing nurses to conduct ECGs and transmit data to cardiologists for remote diagnosis.

The Accu Chek is also used to check blood sugar for diabetic patients, helping them keep track of their sugar levels and watch their lifestyle.

“The right technology, when it’s affordable and accessible, can dramatically change health outcomes in the poorest communities.”- Bill Gates.

Drones For Medical Supply Delivery

This high-tech innovation has transformed emergency medical supply delivery. Companies like Zipline utilise programmed drones to overcome challenges in emergency medical response, such as poor traffic conditions. These drones are crucial for delivering vaccines, blood, and medications to remote areas, particularly during health emergencies like the Ebola outbreak.

Medical Device-as-a-Service

Medical Device-as-a-Service is a healthcare model gradually becoming more popular in Africa. Considering the restraint in finance and infrastructure, this model makes it easier for healthcare professionals and institutions to access medical devices without owning them directly.

With a mix of infrastructure, technology, and innovation, MDaaS is at the top of the list of “Medical Device-as-a-Service” providers in West Africa.

Located in Nigeria and now expanding to Cameroon, they have a wide array of “Medical DaaS” services, from Digital X-ray, EEG, Ultrasound, and ECG to more advanced clinical services like Histopathology, Serology, Hormonal assay and DNA paternity screening.   

Addressing Systemic Challenges

The healthcare ecosystem in Africa is changing rapidly because of new technologies that improve patient care, diagnosis, and treatment.

Despite the progress made, there are still several challenges in implementing these innovations.

This section will look at some of these challenges and suggest possible solutions.

Regulatory Hurdles

Challenge

In Africa, no continental regulatory body or organisation oversees the regulation of healthcare/digital technologies.

Current regulatory guidelines and protocols largely depend on the country’s existing health regulatory agencies and bodies in conjunction with global data protection agencies and networks.

While The African Medicine Agency (AMA) may be an existing primary regulatory body for medicine across Africa, it doesn’t have any active oversight around healthcare/digital health technologies that require a more sophisticated approach to regulation and control, considering that most of these digital technologies will be connected to patient devices and will access very private information and resources.

Solution

The development of a continental regulatory body for healthcare/digital health technologies. Harmonising the regulation of healthcare technologies in Africa will ensure that we have the data to pursue quality, identify gaps and plan for the future of health technology in Africa.

Adaptive Pathways: Implement adaptive licensing that allows for progressive market entry as more data on safety and efficacy is collected.

Data Privacy and Security

Challenge

With the emergence of healthcare technological innovations, particularly digital health records, wearables, and artificial intelligence, the volume of sensitive data collected and generated is considerable. If this data is not adequately secured and managed, it can lead to significant issues.

Solution:

Developed and enforced encryption standards for all healthcare data should be implemented as this is a high-end data protective measure. Also, ensuring a privacy structure is included in the design during development will support the encrypted data.

Another critical part to look at is the area of digital literacy, where the issue of a data breach is heard of only because healthcare providers or patients are not versed in or are ignorant about how to use or manage these digital innovations, resulting in poor data security practices. So, creating awareness and conducting digital literacy campaigns solely for this cause will be effective.

Economic Barriers

Challenge

Securing funding for digital innovation has long been a challenge in Africa, significantly hindering regions from evolving their healthcare infrastructures into digital-enabled systems.

Solution:

To make healthcare more accessible for small providers and patients, we need new funding models, like public-private partnerships or health tech incubators.

Some affordable technologies are essential for low-income individuals, but many are still too expensive.

We can develop scalable design technologies for smaller clinics and very low-income patients to adapt to their needs. Good health should be available to everyone, not just the wealthy.

Cultural Resistance

Challenge

In this region, resistance is often to changing from established healthcare standards to new innovative methods. Most healthcare professionals have not fully understood the importance of integrating modern health technological practices, especially in rural areas that do not have access to essential healthcare services.

Solution:

There should be an overall literacy about new technologies and their benefits. A comprehensive training program is provided for healthcare beneficiaries and even some workers to ease the transition.

Ethical Considerations

Challenge

Ethics are crucial in healthcare, especially with new AI and genetic editing technologies. Issues related to consent, bias, and fairness are important to consider.

Solution

Establishing clear ethical guidelines is crucial to cultivate a beneficial relationship between technology and healthcare. Involving ethicists, patient advocates, and community representatives from the beginning of the technology development process will ensure that these tools are fair and equitable.

The synergy between government, private sectors, and NGOs is essential for scaling these technological innovations. Initiatives like the Investing in Innovation (i3) Africa programme connect startups with the required funding and partnerships and develop an environment where local innovations can grow and thrive.

To importantly state, For technology to truly transform healthcare, there needs to be an enabling environment which includes national digital health strategies, regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation and protect data privacy, and investment in digital infrastructure like broadband and electricity, which are often lacking in many West African countries.

Looking Forward

Innovative healthcare technologies have the potential to enhance care delivery and patient outcomes. A strong plan involving policy changes, new innovative technologies, education, and ethical practices is essential to achieve this.

West African healthcare faces challenges like digital literacy, cybersecurity, and access to services, but recent advancements offer hope for improvement. By investing in technology and training, we can better meet the unique needs of local communities.

While these innovations haven’t resolved all issues, they promise to make healthcare more accessible, affordable, and responsive, paving the way for transformative changes across the continent.