Key Highlights :
digiLab and KOYO partner to expand healthcare access in Nigeria with explainable AI and KOYO Navigate mobile platform.
Launched in Abuja and created to be deployed in Nigeria and into the Gambia.
Created to solve Nigeria's acute doctor shortage and high rates of child mortality preventable, the company provides scalable, reliable healthcare solutions.
Key Background :
Sub-Saharan Africa remains plagued by abysmal healthcare, where limited infrastructure, underfinancing, and debilitating scarcities of essential workers hinder access to essential care. Nigeria is most severely affected by such disadvantages, with an estimated shortage of more than 200,000 physicians. The consequence of the dearth is atrocious: some 125,000 children annually unnecessarily perish from treatable diseases such as malaria, despite effective treatment being available. Those challenges indicate clearly that innovative solutions must be developed to bridge the gap between need and availability in healthcare.
Here, digiLab and KOYO have combined with complementary strengths. digiLab, a software firm based in Exeter, specializes in explainable and probabilistic AI, with its technology providing transparent and auditable results. In healthcare, that priority on trust and responsibility is particularly critical. Nigerian healthtech startup KOYO launches its mobile-first solution, KOYO Navigate, a product to help individuals choose whether, when, and where they ought to visit a doctor. They are the ultimate combination of technical expertise and insider knowledge.
The initial pilot launch of KOYO Navigate occurs in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja. The pilot will determine if the platform can help users make better health choices and relieve some of the burden from over-stressed medical professionals. Rolled out, the platform will go deeper into Nigeria before expanding into the Gambia, to suggest plans that are long-term beyond one city or even one country.
For digiLab CEO and founder Tim Dodwell, the effort is one of challenging how healthcare might be delivered in resource-poor settings. He stressed that applying artificial intelligence is not in order to substitute physicians but rather to deploy them where there are insufficient professionals to cover the populace. By auditing the AI and making it explainable, digiLab hopes to gain trust where distrust of new technology might otherwise stifle take-up.
The initiative has been framed by KOYO CEO and founder Thomas Cracknell as an opportunity to bypass traditional models of healthcare. Africa bypassed fixed-line infrastructure to move straight to mobile phones, he is convinced, and therefore the continent can bypass legacy healthcare models by adopting digital-first solutions designed into local ecosystems. This comes along with scalable, affordable, and secure access to healthcare as African communities wish.
Looking ahead, the digiLab-KOYO partnership is part of a longer-term vision for revolutionizing access to healthcare across sub-Saharan Africa. If it comes to fruition, it could be expanded as an example of how AI-facilitated, locally driven innovations can address system-level issues in providing healthcare. In addition to expanding access to treatment, it could affect policy, enhance trust in digital health technology, and develop the resilience of health systems in the longer term.
About the Author
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is a Managing Editor at World Care Magazine.