KENYA— Vantage Health, part of the international social impact business, BroadReach Group, has partnered with Africa Health Business (AHB), an Africa-based healthcare consultancy, to host leaders in an interactive partnership session aimed at addressing critical health outcomes and improving program performance.
Vantage will provide AI-powered data management, patient care, and real-time communication for healthcare professionals, particularly within the treatment and care of HIV, TB, malaria, and other related diseases.
AHB, on the other hand, will supply market insights and foster stakeholder engagements across the public and private sectors.
Moreover, this initiative comes at a time when Kenya’s health system is overburdened, and the collaboration is expected to receive a significant boost from a new international health alliance that combines proven Africa-led AI technology with deep local contextual expertise.
The collaboration planned to develop a comprehensive training and capacity-building program to equip local healthcare practitioners with cutting-edge medical knowledge and technical capabilities.
This interactive event saw healthcare leaders assemble in Nairobi on February 22, 2024, to join forces. A round table-themed “Technology-enabled Health Systems Strengthening” brought together high-level government, donor, and commercial sector health partners in Kenya.
Participants included the Kenya Ministry of Health, Digital Directorate, Kenya Council of Governors, Kenya Healthcare Federation, Kenya Red Cross, AMREF, Palladium, PS Kenya, and LVCT Health.
The industry continues to face a variety of issues, including insufficient funding, restricted resources, human resource shortages, growing medical expenses, poor insurance enrollment, and regulatory challenges for innovative and re-emerging technologies.
The primary goal of the session was to advance technological solutions, with a focus on the use of AI-driven, data-centric, and technology-enabled solutions to address healthcare concerns.
Additionally, the session aimed to accelerate progress toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, not just globally but also with a specific focus on Kenya, guaranteeing fair access to excellent healthcare.
The session was also instrumental in developing revolutionary relationships that may be scaled beyond Kenya to other nations facing comparable healthcare difficulties.
Speaking at the session, Bernard Langat, Division Head of the Directorate of Health Informatics, Ministry of Health, emphasized the government’s role in creating an enabling environment for other partners to contribute health system-strengthening solutions such as digital health and AI.
On his part, Dr. Gakombe Kanyenje Karangaita, Chairperson of the Kenya Healthcare Federation, stressed the necessity of cohesive collaboration among all health system building blocks to achieve the UHC ideal. He highlighted the crucial role of AI in increasing payer-provider connectivity, benefiting the health system as a whole.
Meboh Abuor, Senior Program Advisor for the Council of Governors Kenya (CoG), added that there is a need to sustainably exploit the digital space for the benefit of patients and healthcare providers, particularly emphasizing AI-driven capacity building for Community Health Promoters (CHPs) with a focus on access, awareness, and affordability.
Mohamed Mohamud, Public Health Specialist representing the Kenya Red Cross, emphasized the importance of tailoring technology to impact fragile health systems and ensure the population benefits, stressing the need for the impact and sustainability of digital health solutions in communities.
Dr. Amit Thakker, Executive Chairman of AHB, highlighted the need to embrace an ecosystem approach to facilitate the integration and sustainable adoption of digital health and AI within Kenya’s existing healthcare infrastructure.
He emphasized the imperative of African-led solutions, driven by expertise in Africa, paving the way for a healthier Africa.
Paul Bhuhi, Managing Director of Vantage Health Technologies, noted that the partnership between AHB and Vantage Health Technologies is transformative, aiming to address cross-cutting challenges in the Kenyan health system.
He highlighted their collaboration with the ecosystem and their commitment to demonstrating how AI-powered healthcare technologies can contribute to the building blocks of UHC in Kenya and accelerate its achievement.
This partnership will also include practical community engagement initiatives to promote health education, technology integration, capacity building, and community involvement for a robust, adaptive, accessible, and patient-centric health system in Kenya.
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