Dr. Dirk Schroeder is named AHIA’s new Managing Director. Dr. Schroeder is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health, and recognized expert in global health research. With thirty years of academic, programmatic, and business experience conducting health disparities research and building health technology enterprises for Latino/Global populations, Dr. Schroeder also co-founded HolaDoctor Inc, a Hispanic health services company that serves U.S. healthcare organizations. HolaDoctor also runs the largest Spanish-language health website online. He also founded a consulting firm (Updraft Health Innovation Advisors) that provides guidance on technology innovation to entrepreneurs as well as on healthcare companies and organizations. Dr. Schroeder currently holds numerous leadership positions and awards. He is multilingual, with extensive field experience in Latin America and Asia, and uses unique combination of talents to provide strategic and technical guidance to healthcare organizations, non-profits, and governmental agencies seeking to engage, improve health outcomes with Hispanics and other multicultural populations.
AHIA HOSTS THIRD WEBINAR: INNOVATION, NOT AID
On May 27, 2021, AHIA hosted Part III of our Bio-Medical Africa Innovator Series with a webinar entitled: Innovation, Not Aid: Stories of African-Led Healthcare Innovations. The webinar focused on the need to switch the global narrative from providing aid for healthcare in Africa to supporting and investing in sustainable, local innovation throughout Africa. Amelia Schaffner, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Emory’s Goizueta Business School moderated the discussion with Dr. Adereni Abiodun, Founder & CEO of HelpMum (Nigeria), Sesinam Dagadu, Founder & CEO of SnooCode (Ghana), and Dr. Conrad Tankou, Founder & CEO of GIC Med (Cameroon). The panelists gave impassioned insights into their entrepreneurial journeys to address healthcare needs in their home countries, including the barriers that come with building sustainable innovation in Africa.
“The webinar focused on the need to switch the global narrative from providing aid for healthcare in Africa to supporting and investing in sustainable, local innovation throughout Africa.”
Please see highlights of the engaging discussion and the full recording below:
Founder and CEO of HelpMum
Dr. Adereni Abiodun is the co-founder and CEO of HelpMum, a social enterprise with the mission to eradicate maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria. Through the distribution of affordable Clean Birth kits, registration of mothers on their vaccination tracking system, trainings and renovation of community birth homes, HelpMum aims to become Africa’s leading mobile healthcare (mHealth) service provider.
Dr. Abiodun took attendees through important partnerships of HelpMum that are being used to scale their products. In the discussion portion, he stressed the importance of experience and education as well as the bias presented in the investors he has interacted with. “If we can change the perspective of funding African businesses, there will be a change [in sustaining innovation].”
“If we can change the perspective of funding African businesses, there will be a change [in sustaining innovation].”
Founder and CEO of SnooCODE
Sesinam Dagadu is the founder and CEO of SnooCODE, a digital addressing system built to surpass the capabilities of the addressing systems of western industrialized societies. SnooCODERED is a variant of the SnooCODE system for Emergency and Public Health, to accurately locate victims in emergency situations.
Sesinam shared the pros and cons of “moving to the problem” by set up operations in Ghana after living in the UK for some time. SnooCODE’s decision to move closer to the problem also meant that they were moving further from traditional funding opportunities. They took the risk. As a result, they have developed a more comprehensive solution better suited for the conditions they are operating in.
“In retrospect, we feel like we made the right decision for the technology by developing it with local talent, in the right place.”
Dr. Conrad Tankou
Founder and CEO of GIC Med
Dr. Conrad Tankou is the founder of CEO of GIC Med, a startup that offers cutting-edge and cost-effective MedTech and Telemedicine innovations, enabling poor, remote, and rural communities with the greatest need to enjoy affordable and accessible healthcare. They offer point-of-care, rapid, adaptable, solutions to underserved populations.
Conrad discussed the need to co-create solutions with people in different disciplines to achieve sustainable innovation. He also went into detail on the mindset people have on “African solutions” not being on the same level as Western solutions, which is not accurate.
“No matter how much you want to disrupt and build a context-based solution, you have a lot to prove and demonstrate for people to understand and then accept your solution.”
At the end of the session, Amelia asked each innovator to address the audience with a few learnings. Below are key takeaways:
Partnership matters. “Your first real ‘funding’ is an opener for other opportunities of funding.” - Dr. Abiodun
Passion and Impact. “In Africa you start below zero, so take it as a challenge and overcome. Never take a rejection with a lot of grievance, prove people wrong.” - Dr. Tankou
Solving true problems. “Solve the problem that people have, not the problem that you imagine they have.” - Sesinam Dagadu
This was the third session in the 2021 AHIA Bio-Medical Innovator series which was created to provide guidance in the biomedical landscape around Africa for African biomedical innovators in partnership with AfricaBio. For more details of the full series, visit the Bio Africa Innovator Resource Hub and lookout for more installments!
Did you miss the session?
Watch the full video on our youtube channel below!
AHIA 2019 student publishes IP law review article
Bennett Gillogly, AHIA student participant 2019, is a JD/MBA candidate at Emory University. Inspired by working with innovators from Africa at the 2019 AHIA workshop, Gillogly began to dig deeper into the intellectual property landscape in Africa and the pathways to intellectual property protections available to innovators.
Gillogly published his findings in University of Iowa’s Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems in April. His article is titled: ” A Window of Flexibility: Why the Formation of AfCFTA Provides an Ideal Opportunity for African Nations to Employ TRIPS Flexibilities on a Continental Scale”.
Learn more about his work below. Congratulations on the publication, Bennett!
AHIA HOSTS SECOND WEBINAR: THE POWER OF NETWORKING
On March 18, 2021, AHIA hosted Part II of our Bio Africa Innovator’s Series: The Power of Networking. We focused on the importance of networking for academics, scientists and entrepreneurs who want to commercialize innovation. The panel consisted of Dr. Akanimo Odon (Dr. Akan), CEO of Envirofly Consulting UK, who moderated the session and delivered his 5 Nuggets of Conscious Networking (see below). Pauline Koelbl, Founder & CEO of AfriProspect and ShEquity, delivered a key presentation highlighting her personal journey of establishing and leveraging a global network. Dr. Emmanuel Egbroko, Founder & CEO of Inocul8, a startup combatting vaccine-preventable diseases, discussed how he leveraged events and conferences to grow his network. The event was completed by Dr. Admore Jokwiro, CEO of MyCpdZw, a digital platform to support healthcare professionals continuing education in Zimbabwe. Dr. Jokwiro engaged the audience with the question: finding funding or building a network, which is more important? Check out the highlights below.
Dr. Akanimo Odon
Dr. Akan took the attendees through his 5 Nuggets of Conscious Networking.
These nuggets are recommendations for structuring how you interact with a new connection.
Introduction: Who are you?
Investigation: What does the other person do?
Articulation: Is there a synergy in this relationship?
Characterization: How do you want to define this relationship?
Action: What do you want out of this relationship?
Pauline Koelbl
SheEquity & Afriprospect CEO & Founder
Pauline Koelbl focused her presentation on her journey from Rwanda, to Arizona, USA as a refugee, and now the EU.
She talked about her intensive experience in forming global connections that led to new positions that expanded her work experience, board positions, and partnerships in multiple ventures. Pauline challenged the audience with the question: “Who are my top 8 people?” She shared the importance of surrounding yourself with strong advocates and attributed most of her success to key people in her network.
One of her ventures, ShEquity, is a fund with the mission to unlock African female entrepreneurs through smart and sustainable investments. Another venture, AfriProspect, has a motto: Innovate, Connect, and Scale. Check out her organization here to learn more!
Dr. Emmanuel Egbroko
Inocul8 Cofounder& CEO, Nigeria
Dr. Emmanuel Egbroko discussed his journey of forming Inocul8.
“It’s not a matter of selling your elevator pitch, it is about selling your vision, what you are trying to achieve.” Inocul8 has the mission to reduce the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and their associated death by ensuring easy access to screening and vaccination services for many Nigerians. Their goal is to vaccinate at least 1 million Nigerians by 2030! “Results are never achieved in isolation, results are achieved through collaboration.” Check out his venture here to learn more and connect with his team.
“Results are never achieved in isolation, results are achieved through collaboration”
Dr. Admore Jokwiro
MyCptZw CEO & Founder, Zimbabwe
Dr. Admore Jokwiro finished off the webinar, explaining how he would not be where he is now without networking.
He is the District Medical Officer for Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a Humphery Fellow at Rollins School of Public Health (Emory University), and CEO of MyCpdZw Solutions, an online teaching platform that provides continuing health education to all health workers in Zimbabwe, with almost over 28,000 users. He initially did not have the capital to grow MyCpdZw, so he looked to his network to find funding. He continued to dip into his network whenever he came across issues in developing of the application.
“If there is one thing our platform needs right now, it is a bigger network.”
This was the second session in the 2021 AHIA Bio-Medical Innovator series which was created to provide guidance in the biomedical landscape around Africa for African biomedical innovators in partnership with AfricaBio. For more details of the full series, visit the Bio Africa Innovator Resource Hub. Be on the lookout for Part III in late May.
