Three tech leaders shed light on how technology is slowly changing the face of healthcare in Africa.
As AI adoption rises in boardrooms, a revolution is underway in Africa’s healthcare industry, led by IT practitioners transforming the landscape alongside health professionals and policymakers.
Their efforts are bearing fruit, as the world is beginning to take note. Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi’s senior manager of EHR operations, Uzma Qureishi, recalls being invited to present a paper at the Radiological Society of North America after the hospital introduced a Philips ultrasound prototype designed for use even in remote settings. The conference had brought together experts from major institutions like the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University.
“They all looked at me and they said wow, really, this happens in Africa, and I said yes, it happens in Africa, and I feel like it was not just a hospital that was put on a platform, it was Africa,” she narrates.
AI as the doctor’s aide
The prototype was just one among several ways that the hospital is using technology to improve healthcare access and service delivery. In November 2022, the hospital became the first in East Africa to go paperless by implementing a full, end-to-end electronic health record system running across 55 outreach centres. The system also detects dangerous drug interactions in real time, flagging conditions like elevated creatinine levels, thus reducing drug prescription errors. Further, the hospital is now utilising the patient data captured by the system to conduct research tailored to African populations instead of relying on data collected in the West.
"The medications that are going to come up will actually be tested or made for us," she says. "And that really makes a difference,” she says.
Under Uzma’s leadership, the hospital is also piloting AI in radiology to measure bone density and interpret X-rays, thus further streamlining diagnostics.
At Avenue Healthcare,CIO Geoffrey Gitagia is leading the organisation to use specialised AI for ICU monitoring and clinical transcription. With the system, a practitioner can pull out a patient’s history and compare it with the current visit within a very short time, which makes it possible to make faster and well-informed decisions.
Redefining medical education
The use of technology is not limited only to hospital settings. Kilometres away in Rwanda, Clement Muhire, who heads technology at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), has overseen the introduction of a hybrid teaching model at the University that connects faculty volunteering from other countries with students in Rwanda, including those in remote locations.
"We have been able to leverage what the current audio-visual infrastructure is providing to make sure we keep our students and faculty engaged with others," he explains.
The hybrid teaching model is just one of Clement’s achievements. In early 2025, UGHE, under Clement’s leadership, was chosen to be the institutional home of the Consortium of Medical Schools Africa (COMS-A). Clement and his team are charged with developing an AI-based model that will allow the sharing of research between faculty, students and researchers across the continent.
The adoption of technology in healthcare has not been without challenges. For example, Clement points out a skills gap where healthcare professionals lack an IT background.
“Because we are in a non-tech environment, working with people in a different area and making them understand the use of tech and how they can leverage it can be challenging” he says.
On his part, Geoffrey points to the limitations of technologies like AI, especially in patient-doctor interactions, because AI cannot capture physical cues and conduct nuanced examinations.
Even with the challenges, the benefits of utilizing technology in healthcare settings to develop solutions tailored to the African population are there for all to see.
