How Can Big Data, RWD, and RWE Upgrade Healthcare in Africa?

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By Oladimeji Ewumi | Aug 03, 2021

Image courtesy of and under license from Shutterstock.com

Healthcare delivery remains one of the core components of a nation’s health system. An efficient healthcare delivery system is data-driven, and its professionals must access data to diagnose conditions, treat diseases, prescribe medications, and offer consultations. Africa’s lack of data storage infrastructure, inefficient health data management, shortage of trained healthcare professionals, low healthcare budgets, and poor service integration is stopping data realize their full potential in Africa’s expansive health terrain. Use of data and real-world evidence (RWE) in Africa’s healthcare delivery system is an untapped goldmine.

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Healthcare delivery remains one of the core components of a nation’s health system, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and can be a key index for health outcomes.¹

An efficient healthcare delivery system is data-driven and its professionals need access to data to diagnose medical conditions, treat diseases, prescribe medications, and offer consultations. While Western countries with streamlined electronic health records (EHRs) are leveraging the vast amount of generated data to proffer data-driven health solutions, Africa is miles away from such transformations.² Lack of data storage infrastructure, inefficient health data management, a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, low healthcare budgets, and poor service integration is stunting data from realizing their full potentials in Africa’s expansive health terrain.³

The application of data and real-world evidence (RWE) to Africa’s healthcare delivery system remains an untapped goldmine as much remains to harness from health data. In light of Africa’s burgeoning challenges within its health sector, efficiently generating, analyzing, and utilizing data is the answer to closing equality gaps between different target populations.

“Big Data, real world data (RWD), and RWE can improve healthcare delivery in Africa by helping health workers work more efficiently, see more patients per hour, provide more accurate diagnosis, and higher quality treatment plans,” said Dr. Kate Tulenko, health systems expert and chief executive of Corvus Health. “AI-enabled medical devices and software can accomplish this by analyzing patient data before or as a health worker sees a patient and supporting the decision process.”

Big Data, RWD, and RWE: Present Impact and Future Potentials

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