Latest News

Watch our practical session on Navigating Health Data Privacy & Ethical Challenges

Filter resources 6 Results
The New Digital Protocol for Africa

Earlier this year African heads of state, gathered for the annual African Union summit and approved the new Protocol on Digital Trade (the “Digital Protocol”) under the auspices of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Approval of the AfCFTA’s Digital Protocol is a pivotal step for African nations, their citizens, private sector, and other stakeholders in Africa’s ongoing development as a player the global economy.

The Protocol is intended to support continent-wide digital trade and help both individual African countries, and the continent as a whole, participate fully in the digital economy of the future by harmonizing rules, standards, and practices. The urgency and speed with which the Digital Protocol was developed, negotiated, and approved is a model for continental diplomacy.

Summary of the Digital Protocol

The Protocol is comprehensive and has far-reaching implications. The Digital Protocol applies to all African states who have signed on (expected to be most or all member states eventually) and covers all market sectors. All parties to the agreement must comply with the Digital Protocol within five years.

Key areas addressed include improving market access, facilitating digital trade, enhancing data governance, fostering business and consumer trust and transparency, improving digital inclusion and literacy, tackling emerging technologies such as AI, and building continent wide capacity to participate fully in the global digital economy.

In focusing on improving trade across African countries with each other and, as a combined Africa global market, the Protocol specifically attempts to address some known impediments today, such as the ability to move data, digital products and services, and digital payments across nation borders within Africa. The Protocol pays particular attention to ensuring modernized and harmonized digital payment infrastructure and regulations that make it easier for Africans to do business with other Africans.

Of particular interest to tech companies, both global and African -based, the Protocol paves the way for more African data centers and increased cloud computing, promotes digital literacy and capacity development, eliminates data residency claims except in special circumstances, and provides protections around source code.

What it means for Africa and the World

The Digital Protocol has the potential to transform Africa into a major global hub for digital products and services.

First, though, Africa must leverage its combined digital-enabled market power to the world. With 54 countries, all with different digital requirements, patchwork legal frameworks, ranging market maturity, and varying impediments, many individual countries are being left behind in the digital age.

The Digital Protocol paves the way for a range of data and digital intensive industries. For example, the global life sciences market needs African nations and their markets to improve flow of data regionally and continent wide. Also, nascent African manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and medical devices needs data-driven efficient supply chains, optimized management of inventory, product flow, and chain of custody. With more integrated regional and continental supply chains enabled by digitization, African pharmaceutical manufacturers should be able compete more effectively on the global stage.

The Protocol, combined with improved infrastructure and human capacity development, will make African nations much more attractive for private capital. This, in turn, should accelerate early efforts to foster African regional data center hubs, entrepreneurial accelerators, and tech outsourcing.

About BroadReach Group

BroadReach Group is an African social enterprise that helps organizations to deliver better outcomes, improved resource efficiency, cost savings, enhanced organizational performance, and sustainable systems. We operate across multiple African countries and have operations in Europe, UK, and the US. In addition, BroadReach brings deep technical expertise in technology and digital transformation.

Through our twenty plus years operating on the African continent we have gained an intimate and nuanced understanding of how to get things done within and across African countries. Sitting at the intersection of government, private sector, and international players, we see the connection points to drive positive change across ecosystem partners. For example, BroadReach is currently engaged to help mature and harmonize regulatory ecosystems at the country, regional, and continent-wide level.

Our experience and expertise in Africa give us a distinct ability to offer a range of strategic digital transformation services, including strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, readiness assessments, gap analysis, implementation planning and project management, and technical interoperability and integration support.

Read more
BroadReach Group and BAO Systems partner to drive better health outcomes through AI driven technology

BroadReach and BAO are collaborating on the enablement of DHIS2, powered by AI from Vantage Health Technologies, part of BroadReach Group. DHIS2 is the world’s largest health information management system, underpinning healthcare systems across more than 100 countries. BAO Systems is a US-based health IT organization with deep expertise in implementing DHIS2 globally.

15 July 2024, Cape Town – BroadReach Group and Washington-based BAO Systems have entered into a collaboration agreement that will advance how patients can benefit from ethical healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) across continents.

The partners will use AI-powered DHIS2 to support the performance of healthcare operations and the health workforce to be more efficient and effective, optimizing scarce resources. Initial areas of focus include HIV prevention, care, and treatment, as well as reproductive health.

Chris LeGrand, CEO of BroadReach Group, said: “In the evolving landscape of global health, digital innovation emerges as a beacon of hope, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare accessibility and quality. We are honored to partner with BAO Systems to drive advancement in how AI can add value to our customers and ultimately better health outcomes.”

Paul Bhuhi, Managing Director of Vantage Health Technologies, says: “Working together BroadReach Group and BAO systems will bring all the benefits of ethical AI to collaborate in the creation of AI driven insights that improve health systems performance and health outcomes. BroadReach will achieve this via its AI driven platform ‘Vantage’, and BAO Systems will collaborate with its deep knowledge on DHIS2 and other health data sources. Together BroadReach Group and BAO Systems will unlock the value that sits within existing ICT platforms and data streams, such as DHIS2, and offer next generation value from that data to its customers and users.”

Steffen Tengesdal, CEO of BAO Systems, added: “Our collaboration with BroadReach Group marks a significant step forward in leveraging data and AI to enhance health system performance. By combining our expertise in DHIS2 with BroadReach’s AI-driven platform, Vantage, we aim to unlock the value of existing ICT platforms and data streams, providing next-generation insights and improving health outcomes globally.”

ENDS

About BroadReach Group:

BroadReach Group is a group of social impact businesses focused on harnessing innovation and technology to empower human action. Since 2003 BroadReach Group has worked in over 30 countries to support governments, international NGOs, public and private sector to improve health outcomes for their populations.

BroadReach has been at the forefront of developing innovative approaches to improve the outcome of people living with HIV, TB and other diseases for more than 20 years. BroadReach Group has two mutually reinforcing businesses, BroadReach Health Development and Vantage Health Technologies. We help health organizations optimize health outcomes and resources by using AI and Machine Learning to enable timely and informed action to deliver better health outcomes, more efficient use of scarce resources, cost efficiencies, improved organizational performance and more sustainable health systems.

About BAO Systems:

BAO Systems is a leading provider of innovative data technology solutions for global health programs and other international development sectors. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., BAO Systems specializes in implementing DHIS2, the world’s largest health information management system. The company offers a suite of services including data analytics, system integration, and training, aimed at empowering organizations to make data-driven decisions to improve health outcomes. BAO Systems has a strong track record of supporting international health programs and has been instrumental in advancing the use of data for better decision-making across numerous countries.

Read more
Leveraging AI for Good Health: The New Frontier in Social Innovation to accelerate progress toward SDG 3

In the evolving landscape of global health, digital innovation emerges as a beacon of hope, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare access, quality and affordability. A recent white paper by the World Economic Forum, produced in collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, EY and Microsoft, sheds light on an exciting paradigm shift: the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in social innovation, especially within healthcare. AI uptake has the potential to improve immunisation programmes, supply chains, referrals, diagnoses, drug safety, and overall health system efficiency. The report finds three primary impact areas where AI is making significant contributions:

  • Healthcare, with 25% of innovators using AI to advance access to health;
  • Environmental sustainability, with 20% of social innovators applying AI to tackle climate solutions; and
  • Economic empowerment, notably prevalent in lower-income countries where 80% of all initiatives aimed at enhancing livelihoods are based.

Healthcare is by far the most prevalent impact domain that social innovators are addressing with AI. Corresponding to this, 1 in 4 Social innovators are deploying AI to advance Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health and Well-being. This is apparent across all geographies as innovators seek to adopt AI to address multiple challenges within the area of healthcare.

Referenced in this report is BroadReach Group, a social impact organisation, that is using AI and machine learning to equip health care workers, leaders and institutions to better manage their scarce resources and drive better health outcomes for all. Vantage Health Technologies, a part of BroadReach Group is harnessing its work across continents in the following ways:

  • Using AI in Africa to support large HIV and TB programs by identifying gaps in resources and supporting decision making and targeted actions to address those gaps. This has allowed many districts particularly in South Africa, with the largest HIV population in the world to come close to achieving the UN goals of 95-95-95. The 95-95-95 HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression targets aim to close gaps in HIV treatment coverage and outcomes in all sub-populations, age groups and geographic settings.
  • Vantage has provided program oversight to Tuberculosis (TB) programs in Africa by providing a single system to manage all key areas. TB outcomes are difficult to manage without daily insight into performance data. Vantage integrated already existing feeds from the national health data system to drive active decision making and launch interventions to address performance, data quality and reporting compliance.
  • A leading non-governmental organisation in Nigeria that provides prevention, treatment and care services across HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria uses AI and predictive analytics in Vantage to prevent missed appointments and bring patients back to care. The outputs are used to prioritise outreach to high-risk patients and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to proactively highlight areas needing attention.
  • In the US, Vantage is addressing Social Determinants of Health, by automating social care coordination for cancer patients. The early results have shown improved patient outcomes, improved equity and financial sustainability, while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on the workforce.

Dr. Ernest Darkoh, co-founder of BroadReach Group, says, “the fundamental issue in healthcare, whether you are in Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, or the USA, is that demand outstrips supply in terms of health services, doctors, nurses, and medications. The healthcare sector is trying to deliver on an antiquated model of ‘sick care’ without real-time intelligence on disease patterns, who is being affected the most, or the adequacy of healthcare resources. We need to change this paradigm to be more effective by leveraging data and digital solutions to ensure we are always spending the next hour and the next dollar in the in the most impactful way possible.”

Global Collaboration to Achieve Health Equity

The report also shows that Africa is emerging, with leaders like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Egypt and Kenya have developed national AI strategies. In other countries like Cameroon, individual social innovators are using AI to address healthcare challenges, such as developing low-cost diagnostic tools for malaria. The continent is also seeing AI applications in economic empowerment and various ML capabilities.

Paul Bhuhi, Managing Director of Vantage shares, ‘’AI is becoming more accepted, with healthcare leaders seeing the promise of AI to drive real improvement in health access, quality, and affordability. Yet, the education gap between innovators and the policy makers inhibits AI adoption, In our experience Rwanda and Kenya are leading that push but more needs to be done.”

An important lesson that BroadReach Group is applying is that learning healthcare lessons in one country can have a profound global impact through collaboration. By sharing best practices, innovations, and research findings, countries can collectively address common health challenges more effectively. Collaborative efforts enable the adaptation of successful strategies to different contexts, promoting universal health improvements and accelerating progress towards global health goals like SDG 3. This exchange of knowledge fosters a more interconnected and resilient global healthcare community, where advancements in one region benefit all.

Dr. John Sargent, co-founder of BroadReach Group, says “an example of impact through collaboration is using our experience and learnings in Africa addressing health inequity and applying them to promote health equity in cancer care in the US. Our teams work across geographies and this collaboration has shown that we can more effectively and rapidly improve patient care because of this experience. Although every geography and market has its differences, many of the same core principles, critical lessons learned, and approaches apply, allowing us to rapidly adapt and implement solutions that have a real impact for populations in need while ensuring that the health system is using its resources in the most impactful way.”

Embracing the Ethical Adoption of AI

The next generation of ethical generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) provides new hope for more equitable healthcare, but advances in technology must never come at the cost of patient rights. AI systems should start with guardrails and ethics within their foundational design.

Chris LeGrand, CEO of BroadReach Group emphasises, “regulatory frameworks for ethical use of AI in healthcare are still early stage but are progressing. The new Digital Trade Protocol recently adopted by African heads of state under the Africa Continental Trade Area (AfCTA) is an example of international bodies defining the desired digital landscape with rules based on common principles, including protecting personal data while promoting trusted, safe, ethical use of emerging technologies. Regulation is slowly evolving to create trust and confidence in the protection of health data.”

ENDS
BroadReach Group is a group of social impact businesses focused on harnessing innovation and technology to empower human action. Since 2003 BroadReach Group has worked in over 30 countries to support governments, international NGOs, public and private sector to improve health outcomes for their populations.

Read more