Transforming health care with Africa CDC’s digital strategy
Digital technologies are central to any resilient healthcare system, but could prove especially impactful across Africa
By Jean Kaseya, Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, Cyril Seck, Patrick Kasiama, Edem Adzogenu, Nebiyu Dereje, Alain Ngashi Ngongo and Nicaise Ndembi, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
Africa, a continent severely affected by emerging and re-emerging public health emergencies, requires robust digital technologies to ensure a safer, healthier and prosperous future. Digital technologies for rapid reporting, contact tracing, public health surveillance data management, analysis and visualisation are critical to ensure global health security. Timely, valid and complete public health surveillance data are central to effective and evidence-based planning, priority setting, decision-making and response.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has embarked on a journey to leverage digital technology to strengthen Africa’s health security in a rapidly advancing digital world.
Collaborating and co-creating
Africa CDC has adopted a co-creation approach, designing its strategy and developing 17 projects with over 75 partner organisations and member states. This collaborative effort integrates and coordinates scattered existing efforts, steering all stakeholders towards defined projects with clear scopes, deliverables, methods and financial plans. This approach, aimed at accelerating and scaling up impact, builds on established foundations and fulfils a need for enhanced coordination across the board. In collaboration with the World Health Organization, we are developing the Africa Digital Health Index, to assess the maturity of member states’ digital health systems and align investment priorities. The Africa Health Tech Summit is a key initiative within the Africa CDC Digital Transformation Strategy to promote the digital health agenda across the continent. It fosters dialogue, collaboration and innovation by convening leaders, stakeholders and innovators.
More than 50% of Africans lack adequate health services, due to gaps in infrastructure and workforce. The World Bank and African Development Bank report 650 million mobile users in Africa, more than in the United States or Europe, with more access to mobile phones than to clean water, bank accounts or electricity in some countries. Digitising primary care is the cornerstone of our strategy, aiming to connect remote and underserved areas with mobile health tools. Achieving a fully digital primary healthcare system could boost efficiency by up to 15% in total healthcare expenditures by 2030, while strengthening our pandemic prevention, preparedness and response capacity. Our HealthConnekt Africa initiative aims to power and connect 100,000 health facilities and equip two million community health workers with smart devices. The project, currently implemented in five countries, starts with mapping electricity and connectivity at primary healthcare centres, then empowers local governments, aligns fragmented efforts and scales up turnkey solutions.
The promotion of HealthTech innovation is crucial to Africa CDC’s digitalisation strategy. We recognise the potential of our talented youth and the private sector, and aim to harness their contributions to improving health on the continent. Initiatives such as the HealthTech Hub Africa, a pan-African accelerator fostering health technologies and integrating them into public health systems, will be strengthened. So far, this hub has supported 68 startups from 17 African countries, reaching over 2.35 million beneficiaries and creating over 800 jobs. Africa CDC is working to provide an enabling environment for those innovations to flourish and scale across borders while ensuring strong data governance policies and regulations to protect citizens’ data privacy and security, leveraging data to generate evidence for policy and spur innovation.
Enhancing doctors’ work
There is one doctor in Africa for every 5,000 people, while the global average is one for every 600. Developing the Digital Health Workforce Capacity ensures that the healthcare workers, from doctors to community health workers, can use digital tools effectively. In order to upskill senior government leaders from ministries of health, who will drive digital health initiatives within their countries, we will soon launch Africa’s first Public Health Informatics Fellowship. We are also working with the WHO to train our technical communities in adopting and using SMART Health Guidelines – which are standards-based, machine readable, adaptive, requirements-based and testable – to ensure that technology platforms deployed by member states adhere to global standards of interoperability, security, scalability and sustainability.
Digitalising Africa CDC’s programmes and operations is an ongoing process that aims to enhance efficiency, transparency and evidence-based decision-making. We have launched the Event-Based Surveillance System to detect and stop disease outbreaks early. Our Regional Integrated Surveillance and Laboratory Network supports public health asset mapping, workforce development and laboratory system strengthening. Our Public Health Emergency Operation Centre is equipped with advanced hardware and software. These digital tools that empower our decision-making processes and operational responsiveness are crucial as Africa CDC continues to expand and accelerate its growth.
Reflecting on our journey, key learnings emphasise the necessity of adaptability and proactive engagement. A significant insight has been the importance of fostering robust partnerships not just at the outset, but continuously, while maintaining flexibility in our project scopes to address immediate needs and lay the groundwork for future scalability. By working with governments, international organisations and the private sector and by harnessing local solutions, we can effectively leverage technology to address healthcare challenges. ▪
