In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first global report on artificial intelligence applied to healthcare, in which it presented both opportunities and challenges for governments, providers and populations. It did not fail to put people back at the heart of technological processes, stating that "artificial intelligence offers great hope for improving healthcare delivery and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are placed at the heart of its design, deployment and use".
In 2023, the international institution reaffirmed its six fundamental principles:
- Protecting autonomy;
- Promoting well-being, human safety and the public interest;
- Ensuring transparency, explicability and comprehensibility;
- Promoting responsibility and empowerment ;
- Ensuring inclusion and equity ;
- Promoting responsive and sustainable AI.
Many companies have not waited for WHO guidelines on deploy artificial intelligence designed primarily for patients and caregivers, with the aim of bridging the gap in access to healthcare in developing or underdeveloped regions.
This is, by way of example, the case of Nigerian company Reliance Health, which is making healthcare more affordable in emerging countries thanks to its digital platform. Reliance Health now has over 200,000 users and has seen its sales double every year since it was founded in 2016. Co-founded by Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun and Matthew Mayaki, the company offers everything from telemedicine services to prescription delivery, and uses an integrated process to provide health insurance through partnerships with hospitals and healthcare facilities.
The African tech ecosystem is booming, with $5.2 billion raised in Private Equity by 2021, 34% of which will be allocated to companies based in Nigeria.
Reliance Health posted sales of $14.1 million in 2022, up 115% year-on-year.
Another telling example is Kalbe Genexine Biologics, an Indonesian company supplying innovative, high-qualityand affordable biologicsto the Southeast Asian market. Founded in 2016, the company has licensed two late-stage drugs and one new early-stage drug. Kalbe Genexine Biologics is a subsidiary of Kalbe Farma, a company specializing in pharmaceuticals and nutrition, which has seen spectacular growth in recent years, with annual sales growth ranging between 7% and 9%, as Business France reports.
In 2022, sales were stable at $14 million.
Now we're heading for the United States, where Equality Health has used artificial intelligence to design an exclusive technological platform, CareEmpower, which gives patients access to quality care at a reduced cost. Today, its Égalité Santé networks represent over 1,600 primary care providers in six U.S. metropolitan areas (three states served). Over the past five years, the company has rapidly expanded its physician base and presence in Arizona, California and Texas, supporting the care pathways of over 300,000 beneficiaries through partnerships with more than 20 sponsors. Equality Health aims to expand its data analytics capabilities, and has recently completed the acquisition of Daraja Services to this end.
The company's sales target is $71 million in 2022, up 13% on 2021.
Reliance Health, KGbio and Equality Health all feature in Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021.
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