Healthcare service delivery in Africa and its associated challenges are well documented, with some estimating that fewer than 50% of Africans have access to modern health facilities. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 exacerbated the situation for many countries on the continent, resulting in a situation where millions of people are in dire need of access to proper healthcare.

Africa’s population is growing rapidly. Over the past 20 years, Africa’s population has increased by 2.5% annually and is expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050. The continent also shoulders 25% of the global disease burden but is served by a mere 2% of the world’s healthcare workforce.

As the population grows, there will be an increasing need for quality, accessible healthcare services if the continent’s nations are to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030, as set out in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.

Experts also point to the need for the urgent reform of healthcare service delivery, to remove the levels of inequity and inefficiency.

This need, says Exhibition Director Azzan Mohamed, will be amongst the key themes at this year’s Africa Health Conference which is scheduled to take place in October this year. Africa and its need will be the main focus for the event, as it creates a unique opportunity for healthcare experts and businesses from around the world to gather and discuss the medical and healthcare developments of the continent.

“We have convened ‘in person’ versions of this event for the past nine years, but the pandemic and its associated limitations means we have had to pivot to a new format that reaches more people. The flexibility of hosting an event on a virtual platform means that we will again be able to offer a rich series of exhibitions and discussions as we have done in previous years.

“The format of this year’s event – a virtual format – means that attendees can enjoy it all and earn their CPD points from the safety and comfort of their homes or office. They will also be able to do all of this at no cost to them, which we hope will remove any barrier to attendance of such an important medical event,” says Mohamed.

“It has given us the opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art custom virtual platform for this year’s event, which means that delegates and industry stakeholders can take part from wherever they are in Africa.”

The congress will cater to African and global healthcare professionals and share strategies that are shaping the future of medicine, whilst also evaluating the latest disruptors driving the transformation of healthcare.

The online sessions of Africa Health 2021 will take place from 25- 29 October 2021.

Each day of the event will also see selected country delegates being profiled or medical products being selected for demonstration.

“Though we have gone virtual, our mission still remains the same – that is to bring together the continent’s best on a sophisticated platform offering the widest range of relevant content for healthcare workers across Africa,” says Cynthia Makarutse, Senior Conference Producer.

The five-day conference will involve a mix of online lectures and conference topic discussions, supported by virtual meeting rooms where medical device and product developers can interact with business and networking contacts.

“We believe in an ever-changing world of human health, forming deeper connections with the African Healthcare Community matters now more than ever. For this reason, we are redefining the art and science of making meaningful business connections by offering a carefully curated series of online events. This platform provides unique education and networking opportunities for healthcare professionals who value innovation, learning, and business.

“Our virtual conference event will have lots to talk about and deliberate. Understandably the topic of the coronavirus pandemic will feature prominently on our agenda, but discussions will go much further than just ways of dealing with COVID19,” says Makarutse.

Topics scheduled for discussion include:

Quality Management & Patient Safety
Medical Obstetrics
Laboratory Medicine
Healthcare Business & Leadership
Digital health
Ethics, Human Rights & Medical Law
Public Health

“Now more than ever, professionals need to come together to address African specific healthcare issues”, concludes Makarutse.

The event is expected to attract more than 5000 healthcare professionals from across the globe and over 200 international and regional companies who value business and networking.