What if I tell you, there’s a country where more than 90 percent of the population is
covered by health insurance, corruption is virtually non-existent, drones bring medicine
to even the most rural parts of the country and the newest technological marvels are rolled
out nation-wide almost instantly.
This country can be found in the heart of Africa.
It’s a real life Wakanda.
This place is called Rwanda.
And actually it’s only a few hundred miles away from where fictional Wakanda is supposed
to be.
But it wasn’t due to the vibranium’s technological and economical miracle that they were able
to build a utopia.
It was tragedy that led them there.
After the devastating genocide more than 20 years ago that shocked the world, the Rwandans
had to completely rebuild the entire country, including their healthcare system.
Similarly to the Baltic country, Estonia, Rwanda has aimed for digitalizing the nation
in many areas.
As a country with 12 million people and no significant natural resources, the leadership
recognized that the service sector could mean the potential development path for Rwanda.
It all started with cables and broadband.
The government already invested a hundred million dollars in building a bandwidth or
fiber network infrastructure over the entire country.
Today, over 90 percent of the country is covered by 4G — some parts are even using 5G.
Health care was also in ruins, and as a country with limited options, the government recognized
that their way forward was through shifting the whole system to digital.
Basically, they opened their doors for innovators and embraced the future.
After laying down the foundations through their network infrastructure, they started
to transform healthcare step by step.
First, they introduced the electronic ID then, electronic passports, and by now they have
expanded the electronic health record system to manage financial aspects, registration,
consultation and clinical records.
Today, they are integrating all these various systems together, and approximately within
the next ten years, the Rwandan medical landscape will be state of the art.
But the key factor in the country’s transformation is that they actively sought collaboration.
For example, the Rwandan government teamed up with Babylon Health, an online medical
consultation service and Zipline, a medical drone manufacturing company to deliver medical
supplies their hospitals.
Even though Zipline is an American start-up, they appeared earlier on the African market
than in the US.
Moreover, Babylon Health was able to work very closely with the Rwandan Ministry of
Health, and they developed the future regulatory framework and standards together.
And that’s the best recipe for attracting businesses: making it easy and smooth for
innovative start-ups to operate.
Foreign nationals can easily obtain an entrepreneur visa for tech start-ups in a short time span,
at no cost and online.
They’ll have an opportunity to shape the regulatory landscape.
And most importantly; Rwanda is secure, and the corruption level is almost non-existent.
Of course, there are problems and challenges.
Rwanda has a huge shortage in manpower.
There’s only one doctor for more than ten thousand people.
That is very far from WHO recommendations.
How fortunate that there are few start-ups to ease the problems.
Through telehealth solutions and medical drones, telemedicine became a daily routine for doctors
in Rwanda.
Even someone from the rural parts of the country could go to the provincial hospital, get a
CT, send it to the Capital city, Kigali, and in 5 minutes, they can have a report back
from a specialist.
And through videoconferences or online consultations, they can decide whether to operate the patient
or how to further his treatment.
Today, delegations from the Middle East, from Latin America or from other African nations
come to Kigali and discuss best practices and how to implement solutions in their own
countries.
And in two years time, Rwanda plans to have minimally invasive surgeries using artificial
intelligence and plant robots in their hospitals.
And further down the road, Dr. Zuberi Muvunyi, Director General in the Clinical and Public
Health Services Department at the Rwandan Health Ministry told us, that Rwanda plans
to create a completely transformed medical system, and he hopes many will join them to
form a community of dreamers in digital health.