Named as one of the 100 most impactful healthcare leaders by the World Health and Wellness Congress in 2019, Jacqui Stewart, Chief Executive Officer, The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), Cape Town, South Africa, will be chairing a panel on quality management at the upcoming Omnia Health Live Africa. Ahead of the event, Omnia Health Insights had a chat with Stewart about the importance of accreditation for healthcare organisations.

Stewart has been with COHSASA since 2005 and says that the organisation's standards provide a blueprint for good practice and enables facility teams implementing them to put in place systems and processes that will ensure things are done correctly. One of the challenges in patient safety, she highlights, is that people aren't open and honest to talk about a mistake and more needs to be done to disclose and explain to the patient if something goes wrong.

She says: “Within any healthcare setting, things can go wrong. But what we find is that if the standards are implemented correctly, and people do the right thing, most of the time, when something does go wrong, the system can deal with it. So, people are aware that there's a problem that has occurred, and they're honest and open about discussing it. It's about embedding quality in the everyday work of every healthcare professional and ensuring no shortcuts are taken. Right, from the receptionist to the CEO of the hospital, everybody has to take responsibility for doing the right thing.”

It is also important to create an environment of “just culture”, she adds. This means that if somebody does make a mistake, the first thing to be done is not to punish them, but to find out what happened, and making sure that people are not fearful to report incidents and that similar events don't happen in the future.

Quality management review process

At the start of the accreditation process, COHSASA trains the healthcare facility team on how to implement the standards and how they can evaluate their service against those standards and then look at the improvements that need to be put in place to comply with them. Currently, their standards are written in English, however, for some English might not be their first language, so the organisation works hard to ensure everybody understands the meaning of the standards correctly.

“Accreditation is a continuous process,” explains Stewart. “It's not a tick-box exercise, it's more of a process of changing behaviours. For example, in a system for reporting negative incidents, we want the staff to manage those incidents, learn from it, track it, and monitor over time so that it becomes the norm. Once the standards have been implemented, we want to ensure that they're embedded within. Currently, we do an on-site survey where we send several surveyors; usually, if it's a hospital, it will be for five days. The team will review every single department against the standards and check that the documentation and evidence are there and will interview the staff. Not only do we want to see what is written down, but we want to see the people do the right thing. We also interview patients, and have adopted what we call trace methodology where we will take a patient record and follow that patient through the hospital and observe their whole journey and see which departments they visited, how they were treated and that it's properly documented, and that the staff understand what they're doing.”

She adds that due to COVID-19, some of their work such as training had to be done remotely. COHSASA has also started to do some smaller surveys remotely with the help of smartphones and asking staff to show the day-to-day operations through the technology.

Stewart emphasises: “I think technology has a great role to play here. COHSASA has an incident reporting system that is online, where the staff can call into a call centre and report an incident in real-time, and it gets captured into the system. The details are available immediately. I think that's important because if somebody has to sit down and write a report, they're going to leave it for later. Also, when something goes wrong, healthcare professionals are in a bit of shock and they're upset because they don’t like doing things wrong. Therefore, they might forget some of the steps of what happened. We have a cascade of questions to help people ensure they get all the information correctly imported straightaway.”

COHSASA works throughout Africa and incorporates lessons from all these different countries to ensure that its accreditation standards are applicable everywhere. At the start of the accreditation journey, some services of the healthcare facilities are usually not up to the mark, but along the way when they see improvement in the services, it becomes more of a collaboration and a powerful partnership.

“I think for the future, accreditation has a big role to play. I always say it's not a sprint, it's a marathon because it's about ensuring quality. Your first accreditation is actually the first step, the challenge, however, is to stay accredited and maintain those standards. COHSASA is constantly looking at how we can raise the bar. We're also collaborating with some countries to help them develop their accreditation systems. I think that's important to help people take ownership in their own countries and know that they don’t always need help from the outside. I want to ensure COHSASA remains up there with the best of the best and is a shining light on quality in the continent,” she concludes.

Omnia Health Live Africa

Stewart will be the moderator at the ‘Quality and safety lessons learned from COVID in the African context’ session on Monday, October 12, 13:00 CAT at Omnia Health Live Africa.

She said: “We will be discussing the lessons learned from COVID-19, in the context of Africa. We have panellists who work in different spheres of the healthcare sector and are from Namibia, Rwanda, Kenya and Nigeria, so it's a good spread from across the continent. We will look at finding some positives from COVID-19. One of the interesting topics we will talk about is the focus on hand hygiene during the pandemic, as this has had a positive impact on other diseases such as hepatitis. We will also explore the innovations and lessons learned from the pandemic and how can we share these across Africa.”

For Dr. Elom Otchi, a speaker at the upcoming Omnia Health Live Africa and one of the World Health Organizations’ (WHO) Global Experts on Patient Safety, providing better care and improving care outcomes is what drives him. He describes himself as someone who is very passionate, confident, assertive and committed, and believes in diligence and hard work.

He is a Consultant and Technical Director of AfIHQSA, a healthcare quality and patient safety institute. The organisation is one of the few on the continent that trains and prepares healthcare professionals and helps institutions design quality management systems so that they can improve upon the quality of care and outcomes. Also, for institutions that would want to seek accreditation, it prepares them so that their accreditation journey is not complicated.

At Omnia Health Live Africa, Dr. Otchi will be discussing how COVID-19 could transform hospital planning. He explains that the first thing organisations should do is to look at the type of service they will provide because that will influence the types of providers that are recruited as well as the types of equipment to be procured and the categories of patients who will visit the facility. It will also influence the type of quality management system that has to be deployed to ensure that outcomes are improved.

“In this part of the world, it is common to have a facility designated as a polyclinic or a clinic, and then in a short span of time, it can be designated as a hospital, and soon after it might become a teaching hospital. These changes don’t take design and the equipment available into consideration. So, when such reclassifications are made, we have to start making extensions and thinking about what kinds of equipment or types of services need to be added,” he shares.

The key, says Elom, is to be proactive rather than reactive. The focus should be on the medium to long term future, as these considerations have an impact even on the types of fabric and materials used in any health facility construction.

He gives the example of China, as the country put up hospitals in less than seven days during the height of COVID-19. The hospitals were set up and when they sufficiently dealt with the pandemic, they were dismantled, and the materials have been used for other projects. “We should be looking at that type of planning and these considerations should be crucial and contribute towards attaining the desired outcomes,” he adds.

Elom Otchi

 

Role of technology in improving patient safety

One of the dimensions of healthcare has to do with person-centeredness and having empathy, so it is important to ensure that the personal touch is not lost. Healthcare institutions shouldn’t become too focused on what technology is helping them achieve and lose the emotive and relational aspect of care, Elom emphasises.

However, he adds that technology can help in enhancing the efficiency of care and help in significantly reducing turnaround times in the provision of care. “Depending on how robotics and other technologies are being used, the error rate can be lower than the errors a human being would have made. Technology also goes a long way in enhancing the safety of both providers and patients. But it all depends on how that technology is designed and deployed.”

For instance, Dr. Otchi says, in some hospitals and healthcare institutions, technology is being used for registration processes, appointment systems and in triage and decision making. It is also being used in precision medicine, cancer treatment, radiology and medical laboratory. He stresses that organisations need to be mindful that a human being will be using those technologies so they should be trained efficiently to achieve the desired outcomes.

He concludes: “Healthcare providers are well-intentioned people. They are genuine and good people who would want to see the improvement in the outcomes of care for their patients. So, it behoves on all stakeholders to support them and play our role in the delivery of healthcare. In the event of COVID-19, we have lost a lot of healthcare workers because they laid their lives down to save others. I believe the least that countries, managers, and policymakers could do is to ensure that the basic needs such as PPEs are provided so that the staff can continue to provide safe and quality care outcomes.”

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World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. This year, World Mental Health Day’s goal is increased investment in mental health and it comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of COVID-19.

People with mental health conditions may experience even greater social isolation than before. The past months have brought many challenges: for healthcare workers, who have had to provide care in difficult circumstances and have been fearful of bringing COVID-19 home; for students, who had to adapt to online learning with almost no contact with teachers and friends; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened, the economic consequences of the pandemic are already being felt, as companies let staff go; and those who have had to manage the grief of losing loved ones.

Due to these factors, it is expected that the need for mental health and psychosocial support will substantially increase in the coming months and years. Therefore, investment in mental health programmes, which have suffered from years of chronic underfunding, is now more important than it has ever been.

Mental health in numbers

Mental health is reportedly one of the most neglected areas of public health. Close to one billion people are living with a mental disorder, three million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. Furthermore, in a recent American Psychiatric Association poll, more than one-third of Americans said that the coronavirus was having a serious impact on their mental health, and most (59 per cent) said it was having a serious impact on their day to day lives.

Despite the high incidence, few people around the world have access to quality mental health services. In low- and middle-income countries, more than 75 per cent of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment for their condition at all. Furthermore, stigma and discrimination are still widespread.

According to the WHO, countries spend on average only 2 per cent of their health budgets on mental health. Despite some increases in recent years, international development assistance for mental health has never exceeded 1 per cent of all development assistance for health. This is despite the fact that for every US$ 1 invested in scaled-up treatment for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, there is a return of US$ 5 in improved health and productivity.

Symptoms

Mental health impairment also occurs in 8 per cent to 57 per cent of patients with Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) and includes anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) noted both in patients as well as their caregivers. PICS refers to a patient with new or worsening impairment in any physical, cognitive, or mental domain after critical illness or intensive care. Studies have noted a higher prevalence of post-ICU psychological sequelae in patients who are younger, female sex, have poor recall of ICU stay and longer duration of ICU sedation.

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health

The mental health of healthcare workers has been particularly affected due to the pandemic. A cross-sectional study of 1,257 healthcare workers in 34 hospitals equipped with fever clinics or wards for patients with COVID-19 in China showed that a "considerable" proportion of healthcare workers reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress. This was especially true of women, nurses, those in Wuhan, and frontline health care workers directly engaged in diagnosing, treating, or providing nursing care to patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Doctors and nurses revealed to TIME recently that they'd harboured dark feelings owing to fears of spreading the disease to families, frustration about a lack of adequate protective gear, exhaustion and deep sadness for dying patients.

Frontline healthcare workers are experiencing considerable stress. Hospitals should provide easy and confidential access to mental health services for their staff. For example, they can create helplines for one-on-one counselling when needed. Within the GCC region, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) created the SEHA Employees Psychological Support Taskforce (SEPST) in the initial phase of the outbreak in anticipation of the pandemic’s adverse effects on frontline staff. SEPST organises weekly webinars in which experts guide the staff on stress management and mental wellbeing. SEHA has also launched a telephone helpline for staff to access in times of distress. Some strategies can also help managers support their teams by embedding new behaviours and offering reassurance where possible.

How telemedicine can help

Unfortunately, people in some communities may react to those who had the virus with fear or distrust. As a society, the stigmatisation of anyone with COVID-19 must be rejected. This virus knows no boundaries. People who survive the ordeal will most likely be ridden with guilt, especially if they have loved ones pass away. They will need social and emotional support for many years to come. Also, throughout the world, it’s clear that many patients who need mental healthcare cannot get access when they need it or choose not to seek treatment for fear of social stigma. Enter telemedicine.

Several studies found online counselling to be as effective, if not more, as conventional face-to-face therapy. Telemedicine can offer better access to more mental health specialists, especially during these testing times when people are going to need them more than ever before. Remotely located patients can now connect with the mental health specialist of their choice, through their local hospitals which are easily accessible to them. Moreover, for some patients with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder, coming into a hospital or clinic creates an extra layer of anxiety and can trigger unwanted feelings and thoughts. Telemedicine offers more privacy and delivers therapy without triggering feelings of anxiety.

For example, Houston-based AccessHealth had to scale up its telemedicine offerings due to the pandemic. They found that the patients screened for depression with a treatment plan documented increased 5 per cent year over year. Currently, there is a 96 per cent overall compliance rate. Continuing treatment through telemedicine was important because there was a potential for increased anxiety and depression due to COVID-19. Using a technology platform enabled all parties involved to contact patients for visits, assessments and follow-ups. The end result showed an increase in mental health visits of 10 per cent.

According to the World Report on Vision published in 2019 by the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, the number of people requiring regular vision monitoring is going to increase by 2030 and the number of people over the age of 60 is estimated to increase to 1.40 billion. Ageing is the primary risk factor for the development of vision impairment and, subsequently, the number of people with glaucoma is going to increase 1.3 times and those with macular degeneration is going to increase to 1.2 times between 2020 to 2030.

Omnia Health Magazine spoke to Dr Sneha Maria M, Senior Research Analyst, TechVision, Frost & Sullivan on the occasion of World Sight Day 2020 to hear her thoughts on what is driving the ophthalmic devices market and Middle East-specific insights into the causes of the vision-related diseases.

What are the latest findings for the ophthalmic diagnostic and monitoring devices market?

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis finds that the demand for ophthalmic diagnosis and monitoring devices is expected to surge as the prevalence of eye diseases rises because of the growing ageing population, lifestyle changes, and increasing incidence of chronic diseases. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and telemedicine in the ophthalmic diagnosis and monitoring space play crucial roles in driving the market as they address the need for eye screening by increasing operational efficiency, accuracy, cost efficiency and access to ophthalmic care.  
 

Conventional ophthalmic diagnostic devices are bulky and non-portable, take a long time for analysis, require expertise, are uncomfortable for patients, and require frequent visits to the clinic or hospital. Going forward, these emerging technologies will support ophthalmologists in better understanding of diseases, taking rapid clinical decisions, and also improving patient compliance and access to eye care, while obtaining better clinical outcomes. These digital solutions will enable ophthalmic diagnostic companies to strengthen their portfolio and stay competitive in the growing market.

What are the main drivers of the growth of this market?

Eye conditions such as presbyopia, cataracts, glaucoma, dry eyes and age-related macular degeneration, in people over the age of 65, is high. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Bell’s palsy, Grave’s disease, Sjögren’s syndrome contribute to the development of eye disorders, as do lifestyle and behavioural changes, such as lack of sleep, overexposure to ultraviolet rays. Poor diet and smoking can also lead to deterioration of vision.

However, most eye conditions can be prevented from leading to vision impairment or blindness if diagnosed and treated early. Hence, regular professional screenings of eye health, especially in high-risk patients, is a necessity to avoid loss of vision.

As the demand for eye health monitoring is expected to increase, there will also be an increased demand for ophthalmic diagnostic and monitoring devices of high operational efficiency, especially portable, AI-supported, telemedicine-enabled and home-monitoring solutions.

Can you share some Middle East specific insights into the market?

The prevalence of chronic diseases in this region, especially diabetes, is high, according to the World Diabetes Foundation. International Diabetes Federation ranked Saudi Arabia and the UAE as 10th and 12th in the global prevalence of diabetes in 2018.

The Middle East region recognises the importance of tracking and monitoring eye health and is continuously improving its technological capabilities. Adoption of digital ophthalmic solutions is on the increase, especially in UAE and Saudi Arabia. Market entry of DIAGNOS CARA teleophthalmology platform and Digital Diagnostics IDx-DR AI technology are examples.

COVID-19, especially, is pushing hospitals and eye institutes to embrace new business models for conducting virtual ophthalmic consultations.

Africa has the world’s worst health record. It carries one-quarter of the global disease burden, yet it spends only 1 per cent of the worldwide health expenditure and has only 3 per cent of the world’s health workers. According to the WHO, regions where there is more than one physician for less than 1,000 patients, are rare. The region lacks the infrastructure to provide basic health care to many of its people. There are hardly sufficient skilled healthcare workers, only a handful of standard hospitals and there is a lack of medical devices. As a result, investors from across the world have spent millions trying to improve the healthcare situation in Africa.

This has given way to innovation and digital health technology e.g. mobile phones, apps, tablets, telemedicine, 3D printing and medical drones. Solutions which mostly by-pass traditional infrastructures or national regulations and cost less than the usual healthcare equipment and supplies.

Despite the success of digital health interventions to date, adequately trained healthcare personnel are needed in order to effectively leverage technology in the sector. Addressing the shortage of skilled healthcare professionals in most countries in Africa, as well as their training, mentorship and access to education, is a vital aspect to meeting healthcare challenges across the continent. This has led to a lot of interest and investment in training and mentorship of healthcare staff in the resource-restricted settings in Africa to upskill the healthcare workforce as a prerequisite to maximising the benefits from the innovations made possible with the spread of digital health technologies.

Most of the healthcare improvement work currently going on in Africa is focused on training, mentoring and coaching to address the skills gap that continues to impact patient care poorly. As you may know, mentorship and coaching traditionally occur in the facility where the staff are, and training is done away from the facility. All these activities translate to the biggest percentage of money spent on any project with similar activities. The costs typically include transportation, remuneration, accommodation, venue for training rentals and per diem costs for the staff who regularly travel to the field to conduct the activities. Due to a lack of skilled workers, the lead mentors and coaches typically are more qualified and, therefore, more likely to be from other countries which drive the costs even higher.

Fast forward to the year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic brings the healthcare systems and the world at large to a standstill. Suddenly countries and counties are locked down, lead mentors and coaches are evacuated, large crowd gatherings are prohibited and the healthcare staff in the facilities find themselves isolated from the world and the only mode of communication becomes the internet and the phone. All these new rules posed a great challenge to how training, mentorship and coaching have traditionally worked and for a time most activities come to a standstill as organisations tried to figure out how best to mitigate the challenges.

Working remotely has become the new normal and organisations focused on training, mentorship and coaching in healthcare are learning how best to adapt to it. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed teams to think of ways to still deliver the most needed mentorship and coaching remotely to staff in resource-restricted areas, to sustain the gains that have been achieved so far as well as keep up with project goals and timelines.

 Nurses In Africa has learnt a lot of lessons over the past six months while adjusting to conducting training, mentorship and coaching remotely in Africa. They include:

Internet is key otherwise the process can't survive

Contrary to most people’s perception about African countries, most of the facilities in the areas with poor accessibility now have access to the internet and as a result, most healthcare professionals have smartphones that we can leverage on. Of course, as part of the review of the project work plan, factor in the cost of airtime for the staff involved. Some facilities may still be in areas that have no internet, and this is an opportunity to engage stakeholders outside of healthcare to invest in the development of such infrastructure for multiple gains in the community. Either way, remote mentorship in areas with the internet still reduces the number of facilities overall receiving regular physical sessions of mentorship.

Social Media is here to stay

 It is important to find different innovative ways to engage the staff remotely otherwise motivation becomes an uphill task. It is at this point that the healthcare world needs to acknowledge and take advantage of the social media platform where most of our target audience spends their time. WhatsApp groups, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook communities for daily updates and easy follow up, telegram for notes on a cloud saving on phone space and TikTok for innovations and team challenges can lighten things up and zoom for group meetings and webinars. Documentation of project activities and success stories doesn’t have to be limited to word documents moving forward.  Having interacted with staff from different countries during mentorship, it is safe to say that the age group of our health professionals’ leans towards millennials and as such we have to identify the most effective ways to engage them to ensure learning takes place. Continuous virtual collaborative learning is definitely possible at a minimal cost.

Web-based scenarios and simulations are possible

The mentors need to provide web-based scenarios and simulations that the mentee can use to practice the said skill for assessment and feedback. An added benefit is that the mentee is able to revisit the session virtually as many times as possible and practice unlike when it's physical and they can only learn when the mentor is present. The opportunity to showcase the “real thing” for the mentee to see virtually provides an avenue for benchmarking and development of a mental picture which makes it easier for them to meet their goal. Here is to killing three birds with one stone!

Virtual mentorship and coaching are strategies for cost reduction and sustainability

At the end of the day, organisations spend a lot of money to enable mentors, coaches, trainers work with healthcare staff in their facilities to upskill them and improve patient outcomes within a time limit and resources. The race against time and resources most of the time leads to projects that end successfully but prematurely and with very little impact on the ground due to poor uptake and sustainability. Virtual training, mentorship and coaching are one of the ways we can markedly reduce costs for project implementation as well as pave way for skills uptake and sustainability as project timelines and activities would be prolonged. The most common reason why the ministries of health rarely follow up on projects handed over to them especially with a focus on training, mentorship and coaching, is the lack of resources to conduct the activities as they were being done. A virtual programme provides an avenue for the continued support from any corner of the world at a minimal cost as well as time for learning to take place and become a standard of operation.

Just like the rest of the world, the healthcare sector has to identify ways to adapt to the new environment and beyond it. Technology and innovation have enabled the world to keep moving despite the ’standstill’. The lessons learnt over the past six months has enabled our mentors to virtually interact with mentees all over Africa with very little downtime, leading to the development of a virtual one-stop mentorship and coaching platform specifically for nurses. The COVID-19 pandemic in the ‘Year of the Nurse’ has not only provided room for innovation due to necessity but also an opportunity for significant history with a focus on nursing to be documented.

Ogongo will be part of the ‘Quality and safety lessons learned from COVID in the African context’ panel discussion on Monday, October 12 at Omnia Health Live Africa.

Omnia Health Live Africa is set to bring together policy drivers, thought leaders, expert clinicians and decision-makers to transform healthcare's most pressing challenges through collaboration and empowerment.

The international healthcare community sits at a critical juncture, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic placing a spotlight on some of the industry’s biggest resource challenges.

According to Wouter Molman, Executive Vice President for Informa Markets – Healthcare, the pressures placed on Africa’s healthcare systems over the last six months have led to a stronger call for innovative technological and digital solutions to support better patient management, universal access and disease prevention.

Omnia Health Live Africa, a free-to-attend virtual event from 12-16 October 2020, will address human, infrastructural and policy challenges and opportunities relating to the adoption of these digital health technologies in Africa.

The largest virtual healthcare tradeshow of its kind in Africa, brought by Informa Markets, the five-day event will unite some of the most innovative and knowledgeable minds from African healthcare communities, allowing attendees to keep up to date on the latest developments shaping the African healthcare industry.

Technologies such as the Internet of Things, wearables, and sensors are opening up possibilities for easier monitoring of individuals’ health in remote areas. According to reports, more than 400 million people live on the continent with little or no access to healthcare. Half of this population lives in rural areas, but only one-quarter of doctors in Africa are deployed there.

Big data and telemedicine are also gaining widespread adoption across Africa. Recently, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) amended its guidelines for telemedicine. The technology has risen to the challenge to fill the void created by the lack of medical personnel on the continent.

For instance, wider adoption of telemedicine turned out to be an asset for countries such as Nigeria where, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are only four doctors per 10,000 patients, or South Africa where reportedly at least 80 per cent of the population doesn’t have direct access to professional healthcare advice because they either can’t afford it or live in rural areas without medical facilities.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also a radical game-changer, offering tremendous promise in transforming healthcare in Africa. It acts as a viable tool for tackling health challenges, reducing costs, and improving health access and quality. A breakthrough use of the technology has been in using it to scan through lung CTs for signs of COVID--related pneumonia.

A worldwide shortage of healthcare workers, particularly serious in many African countries, is predicted to reach 18 million by 2030. This increases the case for investment in AI tools, which can help nurses and community health workers diagnose and treat illnesses typically seen by doctors.

Molman highlights that both AI and telemedicine will be discussed by experts during sessions on infrastructure and digital innovation at Omnia Health Live Africa. “Attendees will learn how to apply AI in a health maturity framework, while a panel discussion in collaboration with the Novartis Foundation will address telemedicine opportunities and challenges in Africa from a policy and regulatory perspective.”

In all, attendees will access over 30 clinical and business sessions that will feature more than 110 global speakers who will empower the virtual audience with access to the latest healthcare industry content. Speakers include renowned names such as Dr. John Nkemgasong, Irene Ogongo and Prof. Morgan Chetty, among others.

The event has adopted six pillars as the foundation for the knowledge-sharing sessions. These include Patient Safety, Leadership, Diagnostics, Infrastructure, Supply Chain and Evidence-Based Medicine. The pillars have been carefully curated to address African specific healthcare issues with topical and relevant information and education.

With the healthcare industry increasingly looking to connect and collaborate online, Omnia Health Live Africa also offers exciting opportunities for hospital management, medical equipment distributors and healthcare trade professionals to interact virtually, build new connections and source cutting-edge products and services.

Exhibitors may gain access to attendees who are primarily from Africa; initiate engagement with prospects; benefit from attendee insights for smarter matchmaking; showcase brands and products in a virtual exhibition hall; and interact with potential clients in real-time.

For more information on Omnia Health Live Africa agenda and speakers, including how to register for free, visit Omnia Health Live Africa.

Once rarely seen outside of healthcare and specialist facilities, PPE - or personal protective equipment - is now a staple of our everyday lives as the coronavirus pandemic continues. 

For both healthcare professionals and the general public alike, face masks and gloves are now commonplace, while more specialist equipment like N95 masks and even full body hazmat suits are generally reserved for those healthcare workers at the heart of the fight against the pandemic. 

This infographic explores the different types of PPE we see most often, and when or where it is most appropriate. Click below to learn more!