Patricia Monthe on delivering Universal Healthcare Coverage in developing countries

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Patricia Monthe is the Cameroonian founder and CEO of MEDx Care, an eHealthCenter that combines health, technology and innovation in significant ways to the social contexts of developing countries.

• What was the inspiration behind starting MEDx Care?

"MEDx Care is a company focusing on healthcare, technology and innovation for and in developing and emerging countries. Our first products focus on improving the delivery of universal health coverage at the public and private healthcare sector level, and we do this by offering a 'digital hospital combined with an offline medical record card'. With our solution, care providers can offer quality healthcare services (from self care to specialist care) with online patient records, appointments, tele-consults, and anamnesis forms with a payment infrastructure. Health consumers (aka patients) can access healthcare services with nothing more than a browser. Here is a link to a little demo of our solution."

• Did you always know you would be interested in ‘medtech’?

"I always knew I wanted to build a business. The industry was not clear because I am more of a strategist. When I felt ready, I explored two areas: scouting true innovators, or building a 'healthtech' company. After some market research and studies, I realised that 'healthtech' had more potential. Since then, I have been busy digging, understanding, collaborating, partnering, networking and growing in this space and industry I can proudly say we MASTER today."

• What are some notable 'medtech'-related ideas that you thought would never happen, but surprisingly, are catching on really well?

"Flatiron Health is a cloud-based technology platform that's currently used by about 260 cancer clinics. The New York City startup takes the patient data it collects from these cancer clinics (without identifying details, of course), and shares it with pharmaceutical companies and researchers. A similar project MEDx Care is working on with the Botswana Organisation for Rare Diseases (BORDIS), manages and connects data from rare disease patients in Botswana to research centres and pharmaceutical companies."

• If you could make one positive difference in Cameroon, what would it be and why?

"I dream of offering health coverage to Cameroon's 23.4 million citizens. I believe, together with my partners and team, I will be able to conceptualise, design, pilot and later deploy inclusive healthcare for all across the country. We strongly believe technology should play a great role in universal healthcare coverage."

• What do you predict will be trending in 'medtech' in the next decade in Africa?

"In the developed world, artificial intelligence, robotics and precision medicine are the biggest trends in 2018. But in the developing world, big data is still a critical piece to tackle. I believe we will dwell more on the Internet of things (IoT) to empower more patients who don't have access to the limited local care providers and care facilities."[/spb_text_block]