When you hear the word healthcare innovations, what comes to mind?
Maybe it’s sleek devices humming in high-tech labs.
AI-powered dashboards.
Venture-backed startups pitching the “next big thing.”
And all the “headline-making-forbes-featured” startups and companies raising millions and racing to become the next great, big unicorn!
While the innovations being developed by million-dollar healthcare companies are intriguing and important, much is also occurring in the background.
In hospitals, clinics, and community health centres—particularly in resource-limited settings—there is a different form of healthcare innovation taking place.
It’s quieter.
More urgent.
Often overlooked.
And it doesn’t wear a startup coat.
Not all innovation needs to be high-tech, grant-funded, or built in glass towers with touchscreen walls.
It doesn’t all have to be futuristic!
It’s about what we’re doing now with the available digital tools at our disposal—spreadsheets, social media, and AI-assistant chatbots. And you don’t really need a million-dollar funding to make a difference in people’s lives.
The Other Side Of Innovation
In the heart of Nigeria, a midwife uses WhatsApp voice notes to check in with expectant mothers every week.
She doesn’t have an app, a CRM, or even consistent electricity. But she’s running her own version of a maternal health program—one ping at a time.
In rural Kenya, a pharmacist, frustrated with constant stockouts, created a medicine inventory tracker using only Google Sheets. It’s not pretty. But it cut missing drug cases by more than half.
In a clinic in Ibadan, a nurse uses SMS templates and a second SIM card to send reminders to patients. It’s old school. But it works—and it’s reducing missed antenatal visits in her ward.
A Physician utilises Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to educate his community on ways to live a healthy life, and by doing so, has been able to inspire and motivate hundreds of people to adopt healthy lifestyles.
These stories don’t usually make headlines. But they’re innovations—plain and simple.
Redefining Healthcare Innovations
Here’s the truth: Innovation is not just about advanced tech. It’s about creative problem-solving. It’s about people.
Advanced digital health technologies definitely have their place in the innovation ecosystem. However, we need to start looking deeper and beyond to see and appreciate what happens in the shadows of advanced digital health technologies.
Innovation is what happens when someone sees a problem, says, “There has to be a better way,” and finds that better way—even with limited tools.
They don’t see a problem and wish they had access to funds or software engineers! They tackle the problem head-on with what they have at hand.
In healthcare, some of the boldest innovations are born not in laboratories but in crowded hospital wards, remote villages, and community pharmacies, where professionals use basic digital tools to transform lives.
And they deserve just as much spotlight.
What We Can Learn
- Low-tech ≠ Low impact
Great innovation doesn’t always mean new technology. Sometimes, it means new thinking.
- Frontline Workers Are Innovators, Too
Nurses, pharmacists, community doctors and community health workers—they’re solving real problems in real-time.
- Support Doesn’t Always Mean Funding—It Means Listening And Supporting
What if we designed healthtech with frontline feedback from the start? Imagine what we could build—together.
Success doesn’t always mean acquisitions, raising funds, series, and unicorn status.
In healthcare innovation, it means touching lives that are far away from the traditional reach of advanced technologies.
Let’s Flip The Script
We need to broaden our definition of innovation. It’s time to stop waiting for big solutions and start amplifying the small ones already changing lives.
So here’s a question for you:
What everyday innovation have you seen (or built) in your healthcare space?
Let’s give voice to the silent innovators—because the future of healthcare will be written by many hands, not just a few.
Seen something like this?
Been part of it?
We want to hear your stories.
Join the discussion on Substack and share your stories.
Let’s start documenting the real innovations that are changing healthcare from the inside out.
