Recognising Healthcare Technology Advancement in Africa

Vanessa Obioha reports that Mary Akangbe, a renowned Specialist Practitioner in Minimally Invasive Surgery and trained Robotic Assistant recently convened the Africa Healthcare Awards and Summit in Lagos where healthcare professionals across Africa deliberated on the technology advances made in the sector and canvassed for more multisectoral collaboration

Recently, Mary Akangbe, the President and Founder of Zenith Global Health convened the Africa Healthcare Awards and Summit (AHAS). The two-day event which took place at Oriental Hotel, Lagos and online pooled top healthcare professionals from African countries including South Africa, Mali, Zambia and Senegal.

For its debut edition, the event tackled ‘Advances in Diabetes and Cancer Care’ with keynote addresses given by Stanley Okolo, Director General, West Africa Health Organisation (WHO) and West Africa Healthcare Federation, Clare Omatseye, on the two days respectively. Both professionals emphasised the importance of multisectoral collaboration within the health space.

Also speaking virtually at the event was the First Lady of Kebbi State, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu who highlighted finance, infrastructure, and resources as major cancer care roadblocks.

“Cancer is fast becoming the cause of premature death. More needs to be done to bridge the gap in cancer care across countries, economies and professions,” she noted.

Equally, the CEO of Lagoon Hospitals, Dr Jimi Coker gave insight into cancer care in Nigeria. Using statistical data, he revealed that there are 124,815 new cancer cases and over 78,000 deaths. Providing insight into the accessibility of healthcare was Dr Mohamed El Sahili, CEO Medland Healthcare Zambia, who stated that cultural bias plays a role in mitigating this access to healthcare for patients.

Drug security was a talking point in the summit where one of the speakers Dr Lolu Oju noted that 70 per cent of manufactured drugs are outside Nigeria, with only one per cent of human vaccines manufactured. This shows that the continent is lagging in vaccine production, particularly at a time developing countries are grappling with accessibility to COVID-19 vaccines.

Akangbe is no stranger to healthcare technology. She is a Specialist Practitioner in Minimally Invasive Surgery and a trained Robotic Assistant with an interest in AI, genomics and health technology. As the president of Zenith Global Health and Zenith Global Healthcare Professional Awards — a platform for healthcare professionals by healthcare professionals — she’s been actively involved in transforming healthcare in Africa for over a decade.

AHAS, she said, is an offshoot of the Zenith Global Health Awards which has been held in the UK for the past five years.

“We’ve had input from healthcare professionals across Africa. In 2020, we set out to have the African version of the Zenith Global Health Awards because we know the impact of advances made in healthcare across Africa cannot be underestimated. We have come a long way from where we are and the healthcare professionals, organisations and stakeholders deserve the recognition on the global platform.”