Medical artificial intelligence (AI) may be the much-needed disruptor to propel Africa’s lagging healthcare sector towards greater accessibility, affordability and quality in the decades to come.
While a World Health Organisation (WHO) study found that the developed world has barely scratched the surface of the potential that AI holds for healthcare, it is in developing countries that AI could have the greatest impact.
Africa’s healthcare systems struggle under the weight of neglect and underfunding. For the continent that carries 20% of the global disease burden and where less than half of the population has access to the healthcare they require, the limited AI interventions already being implemented show great promise. Embracing all that AI has to offer could be transformative.
“It is in developing countries that AI could have the greatest impact.”
Opportunities for AI intervention in Africa
According to a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) report Artificial Intelligence in Global Health, medical AI interventions on the continent would have significant impact in areas such as population health, individual care, health systems and pharmaceuticals, and medical technology.
AI uptake has the potential to improve immunisation programmes, logistics and supply chains, referrals, diagnoses, drug safety and even the performance of limited medical procedures.
AI-powered diagnostics processes would be particularly advantageous as they are able to make use of large sample sizes to detect subtle abnormalities, resulting in early and accurate diagnoses and fewer false positives. While this translates to better outcomes for patients and the more appropriate allocation of limited medical resources, it also means that improvements from one set of diagnostic AI tools can be rapidly shared to others for cumulative improvements to data, irrespective of geography.
“Medical AI interventions on the continent would have significant impact in areas such as population health, individual care, health systems and pharmaceuticals, and medical technology.”
USAID report Artificial Intelligence in Global Health
Patient monitoring could take place in real time, collecting and collating patient diagnostic data inexpensively via smart phones, for example, while in-hospital patients’ recoveries could be tracked more precisely, assisting hospital staff to improve efficiencies while delivering a greater degree of custom patient care.
Chatbots could go some of the way towards making up for the serious shortage of healthcare workers as well as the lack of access to medical workers or equipment in rural areas, while AI’s increasingly accurate translation capacity could overcome language barriers to medical access.
Surgery is another area in need of intervention, with 94% of Africans lacking access to safe and affordable surgery, while the continent is in need of 30 times the surgical staff it currently has. AI could contribute to alleviating this shortage by means of long-distance robot-assisted surgery.
Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town became the first public hospital in Africa to offer robot-assisted surgery in 2021 with its da Vinci Xi surgical system. The surgeon uses a three-dimensional viewfinder for precise depth perception and finger callipers to make minute movements in minimally invasive surgery that limits trauma, inflammation, pain and blood loss.
According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the robot-assisted surgery industry is currently valued at US$8.5 billion and is expected to be worth more than US$18.4 billion by 2027.
Enabling AI uptake for African healthcare
If AI is to deliver on its potential for Africa, policymakers, universities, companies, start-ups and multistakeholder partnerships will need to create the ecosystem for AI to thrive.
Reliable power supply and affordable internet access are required to execute and sustain even the most basic digital solutions. While the situation differs greatly across the continent, close to 50% of all Africans lack access to electricity and less than 30% of African health facilities have access to reliable electricity.
Internet penetration is relatively low and broadband costs are some of the highest in the world. AI solutions deployed via smart phones could assist Africa’s AI uptake, as smart phones are less expensive, easier to power and more portable for patients and healthcare workers.
“Embracing all that AI has to offer could be transformative.”
Beyond Africa’s shortage of conventional healthcare workers, the continent’s shortage of AI-ready workers is a significant barrier to meaningful AI uptake. AI’s use of computational linguistics and natural language processing raise potential complications that will require high-level programming competencies to manage.
Skilled data scientists will also be needed. Since AI is only as successful as the data it is given, preventing algorithms that prejudice parts of the African population will require that AI applied to Africa reflects the demographic variables of the targeted populations.
To achieve this, education institutions need funding and programmes to encourage a greater focus on bioinformatics, data science, computational biology, genomics and applied mathematics to establish a workforce of experts who can adapt existing AI for local needs.
Beyond the overall funding that AI requires for hardware, implementation and system maintenance, African nations looking to improve their healthcare offerings will need to establish national digital health strategies and associated monitoring and evaluation within policy and legal frameworks that enable medical AI uptake and protect its users.
If these hurdles can be overcome, the AI revolution could play a key role in improving healthcare in Africa.
Read more about health:
- Read the Overview of CSI spend on health in 2023.
- Read the 2022 research findings: Overview of CSI spend on health 2022.
Read more about AI in development.
Source: The original version of this article was published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2023 (26th edition).
