PITCH OF THE WEEK

 Shonaquip Social Enterprise

           by  

  Shona McDonald

 

 

 

 

 

Nexus Biotherapeutics

09, May 2023 - 09:00 | COVID-19 Health Innovations

Nexus Biotherapeutics has been established to provide a cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable solution to Africa’s growing demand for quality biologics and the continent’s desire to develop its biotherapeutic manufacturing and production capabilities. Nexus intends to utilize different plant-based technologies to significantly reduce clinical trial costs, process complexity, quality control and assurance risks. These advancements will enable continuous production of biotherapeutics such as insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and other recombinant proteins. The Nexus team therefore believes that, with their strong scientific expertise, developing a portfolio of biosimilars targeting specific disorders based on their chosen platform, they can dramatically minimize quality risks and development costs to create inexpensive biologics for Africa and emerging markets around the world.

 

 

DawaMom

12, April 2023 - 15:15 | COVID-19 Health Innovations

Dawa Health, has created a digital health platform called  DawaMom that aims to empower expectant and nursing mothers to receive remote maternal health. DawaMom is a multi-lingual AI-powered platform that is accessible via a smartphone app, SMS app, web portal, text/audio chat-bot, and sign language clips for persons with disabilities. The platform provides expectant mothers with tailored weekly maternal advice in their language of choice to help them identify risk factors that might need urgent attention. Community health workers, expectant and nursing mothers get 24/7 digital support over the DawaMom platform. Also, the DawaMom platform works together with a network of community health agents ( such as Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs), peer educators, health workers) by providing them with refresher courses and on-demand information via their mobile devices. The DawaMom model is providing commission to the agents who in turn are using their skills to support women in their communities. DawaMom is creating a source of income for thousands of unemployed health workers who are signing up on the platform. Currently, there are 5,000 B2B users and 612 B2C patients being supported by the platform. The innovation is helping mothers get point-of-care and telemedicine support. The AI-powered tool can also be utilised as a tool for screening, profiling, and managing high risk pregnancy conditions. It is being implemented in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

A-lite vein locator

12, April 2023 - 15:00 | COVID-19 Health Innovations

The A-lite vein locator is a non-invasive device designed for paediatric patients whose veins are tough for clinicians to palpate. The device illuminates blood veins to enable clinicians to insert cannulas with high accuracy and minimal failed insertion attempts. The A-lite vein locator saves critical treatment time and reduces the pain associated with finding and inserting a cannula in a proper vein. Moreover, minimizing the number of insertion attempts minimizes the risk of clinical complications such as haemorrhage due to unintended tissue.