Denis Opudo
According to the data by United Nations, Africa and Asia have the highest number of people living in rural areas. Out of the world population of 7.6 billion more than 3 billion are staying in rural areas 90% of them in the two continents. Moreover, Africa and Asia have the lowest and middle-income countries (LMIC). The World Bank defines this as states with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of $1,005 or less and between $1,006 and $3,955, respectively.
Many of such countries have difficulties to access better healthcare. The rural areas are the most affected. Moreover, most of the clinics in rural areas give low-quality services compared to urban clinics. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN have called for funding. They also call for good policies to improve the access to healthcare. But innovation has also a vital role to play. Engineering for All (EfA) is bringing high-quality digital health services to the underdeveloped areas of the world.
Engineering for All (EfA) is an Israel startup that developed RevDx. RevDx is a small portable device. It can carry out automated diagnostics, blood tests, and data analytics immediately. The startup was founded by Yoel Ezra who is also the startups CEO. Ezra worked with the Israel Defense Force for a period of 23 years. He was in charge of the small technological operation unit which was named Q Lab. The experience that he got there made him believe that one can achieve anything by the use of technology. Ezra also won the Prime Minister Award for special technological operation achievement. This came during the time of his service at the military. After his retirement, he decided to work on his childhood dream of working in the health sector. He, therefore, joined Medtronics and Edwards Lifesciences which are US healthcare technologies. He helped the platforms to develop heart valve technology. He also learned about heart valve replacement surgery.
RevDx is more like a hand-held hospital. It will help less equipped medical technicians and workers. People from places with deadly infectious diseases fail to know the cause of their problems in case of an attack by fever. They even fail to understand that the problem only needs an antibiotic. Many of them use unwanted antimalarial or antibiotics. RevDx, therefore, comes in to solve the problem. Moreover, it works on eliminating malaria. The startup is also providing innovative healthcare solutions to rural areas.
RevDx won the startup completion in February 2018 at the DigitalHealth II Conference. The competition was held in Tel Aviv. This is an annual event that brings together investors entrepreneurs and biotech startups. The groups come from the global digital health landscape. Moreover, EfA’s main focus is on Africa and India before moving to Latin America. This is according to Ezra. Ezra was amongst a delegation to India in August organized by the Pears Challenge. India is given a priority due to the unique challenges it faces because of its size and location. Ezra is planning to get to remote and rural places in India and Africa using a B2B-B2C-B2G business model.
EfA plans to give its products to healthcare organizations and private clinics. The two will use the products to offer health services to citizens. The organizations will partner with the government to come up with epidemiological data. The partnership will also help improve service delivery. But the company hopes to get to the West specifically the US with time. The US has 20% of its citizens staying in areas with poor access to health facilities. Moreover, 30 million of the population does not have health insurance. This restricts them to medical visits during emergency situations. The company also plans to offer quality services which are affordable to many. Furthermore, it plans to upgrade the RevDx’s software. This will help it to carry out a diagnosis of various illnesses. They also plan to carry out diagnosis on urine and blood samples. This will make the device to be an adaptable platform.
