Public Health Innovations by 2030

The year is 2030 and Africa is gathered in Isiolo the new capital city of Kenya. Health professionals drawn from the continent of Africa are convening to recognize public health innovations. Both technological advances and social transformations that had set the stage for the triumphant leaps of successes against health challenges in Africa. We were all gathered to celebrate the role played by individual innovators, private health enterprises and governments to overcome the monstrous inadequacies of our health systems. In tune with recent scientific discove5ries, continuous research and changing social structures was the culmination of human excellences in human health. As much as we were proud of our victories, we were in the same breath humbled considering the human cost and the lives we had lost along the way. 

The first to be recognized was the role of governments in facilitating and creating an enabling environment for a flourishing health sector. From the digitalization of the health sector, which among other things allowed for digital storage and centralization of medical records accessible by wealth providers with the consent of patients, universal health insurance coverage that allowed those at the lowest socio-economic strata access health services that were previously only available to the rich, subsidization and tax exemption of health equipments and medical supplies, instituting policies that allowed for mass training of medical practitioners and nurses complete with satisfactory remuneration of those in this profession, not forgetting remedial measures such as accommodating and incorporating into mainstream health provision the use of mobile clinics to reach pastoral populations in remote and expansive areas. 

The private sector contribution to health provision could not be ignored. It’s this group that covered the gap between government’s efforts, individual players and the pooling of resources towards a harmonized approach to public health challenges. In the height of government and private sector collaboration, we saw in the case of Kenya, the emergence and building of Konza city, an ICT based city, Tatu city, an agricultural based city and what a noble endeavor when Kenya launched Afya city, a health based city. This attracted international pharmaceutical companies to set up factories in the Afya city, medical researchers to put up bases, massive investments in mega hospital facilities and medical equipments manufactures all found a home in the country. It led to the emergence of a new medical pilgrimage location replacing India for those in the country as well as those in neighboring countries. What more it also motivated individual health based innovations to take root in the country. 

In the last decade or so there had been an upsurge of technological innovations in the health sector. It would have been impossible to name and recognize all of them in a single conference sitting. However there were outstanding innovations that demanded to be recognized if only for their ingenuity, relevance and impact they had had on lives not only in Africa but globally. For some of them it was impossible to imagine life without them. So indispensable were their utility that some could boast in their own right to have halved or completely annihilated health challenges that had plagued humanity forever. It’s this innovations that had to be recognized and acknowledged. 

On reducing preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths we had from simple innovations like ‘preggy watches’, a watch worn by mothers and newborns that doubled up as a device that tracked pregnant mothers and newborns heartbeat, temperatures and blood pressure and warned mothers of dangerous levels that would be a strain on their unborn or newborn children. The watches could also keep record of these vital signs between visits to clinics that could be accessed by health providers. We also had mobile apps that offered nutritional plans to mothers; with an input of available foods by mothers it would offer nutritional plans matching the social economic situation of different mothers. We had mobile apps that also allowed mothers to gauge nutritional values of food stuffs available in their environment. We had digital records of children under 5 years that could be accessed by heath providers by entering the mother’s phone number. The same portal would be used to send mothers sms reminders of vaccination dates, educational sms’es on maternal health etc. And with the mainstreaming and proper training of traditional midwives such innovative packages as ‘safety delivery Kits’ became life saving humanitarian provisions.  

On ensuring universal access to reproductive health supplies and services was another vital mobile based application that revolutionized women reproductive health. This application brought together use of human capital as well as technology to meet the reproductive needs of women. This was made possible by first the training and registration of a significant number of Community Health Workers (CHW’s). With a an even distribution of these multi-purpose CHW’s  in the community the stage was set for a new beginning in reproductive health. A mobile application was created that registered these CHW’s together with reproductive health clinics and service providers. Using the same GPS technology that allows travelers to find hotels and places of interest in a particular area they are visiting, this application allowed for women to connect with the nearest CHW’s or clinics in their area who could meet their needs at the touch of a button. The number of CHW’s reduced the distance they had to travel to access this services and supplies. It also allowed for discreet and timely interventions where necessary. 

On preventing and treating infectious diseases such as Hiv/Aids, tuberculosis and Malaria, we had a combination of mobile apps and devices that brought these challenges to manageable levels. At first we had automated devices that allowed diabetic patients to continuously monitor their blood sugar levels and warn patients when they were at dangerous levels or even test their blood sugar when need be. This worked on the premise that it was vital to allow self-testing for prompt response to threats. So it was given that there would be a demand for devices that allowed for self-testing of tuberculosis and even Hiv/Aids. This portable devises were carried around and even became household items. Newly met sexual partners could test each other in the comfort of their homes and get results immediately. One could blow into a device and find out if they had tuberculosis even in their earliest stages. Further innovation in this segment allowed for digital mapping and monitoring of prevalence level of an infectious disease. Without disclosing the exact location of infected people for privacy purposes, individuals could access information on the prevalence level of a particular infectious disease in a particular geographical area or neighborhood. Using the same GPS location application mentioned earlier one could now easily access medication conveniently as well if infected.  Nutritional plans for infected people were also now easily available.  

On reducing the toll of chronic ailments such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular related ailments was the use of capital intensive investments that had been made in the health sector. For example the use of Afya city state of the art facilities, community based residential hospice centers as well as mobile clinics that were equipped to provide periodical relief for patients. Platforms that allowed for the sharing of research, patents to generic drugs and best practices went a long way to relieving the suffering of chronic patients. Informational mobile applications that created awareness and allowed for early detection of such ailments also were readily available.

At the end of the award giving and demonstration of these health innovations, one thing was clear; we lived in an exciting time.