Empowering innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare

Health Entrepreneurship (HENT)

The Health Entrepreneurship Pillar empowers aspiring women and youth entrepreneurs with training, mentorship and financial support to develop innovations, create jobs, and transform the health sector.

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Impact of Entrepreneurship on Africa

As African health sectors grow, health entrepreneurship has immense potential to accelerate that growth and support better health outcomes by creating self-sustaining market solutions that close gaps in the health sector, meet community needs, generate revenue, and provide resilience and stability, thereby creating significant employment opportunities.

In addressing these challenges, HENT equips and empowers aspiring entrepreneurs with essential skills and knowledge, mentorship opportunities, and direct financial support, such as seed funding, fostering a robust culture of entrepreneurship for their success.

Within an African-led framework where health entrepreneurship and health innovation are encouraged and sufficiently supported, aspiring entrepreneurs are then able to bring their transformative, locally generated ideas to fruition and create companies, products, services and health-related jobs that strengthens health sectors. 

Our health entrepreneurship network is deeply rooted in the unique local contexts of each partner, empowering entrepreneurs to launch and grow businesses. These businesses leverage indigenous knowledge, medicines, and practices in healthcare, create market solutions for burgeoning health sectors, and generate revenue, thus creating jobs in primary and various other healthcare areas.

By providing youth with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, financial support, tools, access to materials, access to markets, technology, experience and exposure, they will be able to achieve entrepreneurial self-efficacy and significantly contribute to the Health Sector Network’s intertwined goals of strengthening economies through robust health sectors and employing Africa’s youth in stable, dignified jobs.

2022 HENT-AIC Cohort during their visit to Toronto

The Power of Partnership

Our Goal

Implement and sustain entrepreneurial ecosystems that launch health start-ups, generate revenue, and create meaningful employment.

How HENT and Partners work together

Under the Health Entrepreneurship Pillar, Health Collaborative Partners work to co-create, train and empower a generation of youth and women entrepreneurs to launch health start-ups, generate revenue, and create meaningful employment.

Explore HENT Activities

Programs

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Research & Innovation

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Needs Assessment Research Study 

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News & Events

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African Women Innovating in Health Care

This year, FemSTEM Africa engaged over 200 health innovators and enthusiasts through a series of events, concluding in a pitch competition and interactions with seasoned entrepreneurs. The five-part event series was organized by the University of Toronto’s Health Innovation Hub (H2i) in partnership with Social Enterprise (SE) Ghana, Sustineri Attorneys,  supported by funding from the […]

Venture Spotlight: BetaLife Health

BetaLife Health uses artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize blood supply management across Africa. Their platform uses predictive analytics to optimize blood inventory levels, distribution logistics and donor engagement, thereby improving the timeliness and availability of blood for transfusions.

Venture Spotlight: Remedius Mobile Health

Remedius Mobile Health aims to combat the identified problems by leveraging telemedicine through the Remedius Live platform. They seek to provide fast virtual appointment scheduling with doctors and specialists at affordable rates of about five dollars and provide comprehensive care to chronically ill patients. This is executed through an integral network of facilities that provide physical care to these patients if need arises. 

Venture Spotlight: Powerstove Energy

Powerstove designs and manufactures smart smoke-free cookstoves that also self-generate electricity for users to charge their mobile phones and power home appliances using proprietary renewable bio-pellets as fuel. These sustainable, mosquito repellent bio-pellets are produced from post-harvest crops and wood waste.

Venture Spotlight: SnooCODERED

SnooCODERED aims to solve the problem of inadequate healthcare infrastructure (systems, facilities and human resources) in Africa. It is doing this by providing a suite of cost-effective mobile healthcare logistics applications that democratize access to the ambulance or first aid response, facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to diverse populations, and improve contact tracing and epidemiological modelling.

Venture Spotlight: Telemedan

Telemedan creates telemedicine kiosks in underserved communities in order to move toward closing the healthcare accessibility gap. Their kiosks facilitate video conferences between patient and doctor. They are equipped with medical devices for taking vital signs, such as ECG analysis, temperature measurement and blood oxygen saturation. Further, they feature stethoscopes, dermascopes, an HD camera and a scanner for the easy sharing of documents and lab results. With a focus on ease-of-access, Telemedan’s kiosks are user-friendly and accessible to those of varying levels of technology literacy.

Venture Spotlight: BuriCare Limited

BuriCare Limited has launched their Kangacare baby carriers, designed to address the critical need for newborn care, especially in regions lacking adequate neonatal facilities. With only four Neonatal Intensive Care Units available in their country, Kangaroo Mother Care emerged as a cost-effective solution, promoting vital skin-to-skin contact between mother and newborn to regulate body temperature. These locally knitted carriers are equipped with essential sensors capable of monitoring the baby’s temperature, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation. In the event of any abnormalities, an alarm alerts the mother to seek immediate assistance.

Venture Spotlight: A-Lite Vein Locator

The A-Lite Vein Locator is a medical device that facilitates the non-invasive detection of veins under the skin. Using the A-Lite Vein Locator shortens cannulation time by up to 88.5 seconds and lowers the risk of needle-stick injuries and infections. Further, the use of the A-Lite Vein Locator has been shown to decrease medical waste and unnecessary use of clinic resources. 

Venture Spotlight: Vas MedTech

Vas MedTech offers FlexiGyn, a portable, user-guided, and minimally invasive diagnostic camera that can operate in less specialized settings. This innovation is not only cost-effective, but also enhances accessibility. FlexiGyn enables community primary healthcare providers, such as nurses and general practitioners, to perform initial screenings and seamlessly consult with gynecologists for further diagnosis and referrals. FlexiGyn aims to make comprehensive women’s health care more accessible and convenient than ever before, thus addressing a global disparity in women’s health services. 

Venture Spotlight: HealthEdu Ltd.

HealthEdu aims to confront the pressing need for a unified, easily accessible platform catering to the educational needs of healthcare professionals. HealthEdu creates a supportive community wherein practitioners, health organizations, and academic institutions converge to exchange insights, glean best practices, and collectively elevate standards of care.  

Want to learn more about the research pillar?

Photo of Rhoda Akuol Philip (On leave)

Regional Lead (Health Entrepreneurship), International Research Officer

rhoda.philip@utoronto.ca

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Rhoda Akuol Philip (On leave), MPP, BCom

Regional Lead (Health Entrepreneurship), International Research Officer

University of Toronto

Rhoda Akuol currently serves as a Africa Regional Lead Research Officer, supporting partnership engagement, and research collaboration, as well as monitoring, evaluation, learning and adaptation. She is a central liaison for the Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Pillar of the Africa Health Collaborative. HENT seeks to co-create and sustain entrepreneurial ecosystems, and launch scalable, impactful, and contextually relevant health start-ups that offer sustainable healthcare solutions. 

Rhoda Akuol has previously held various research, entrepreneurship, and business analyst roles within different work environments and cultures, including at start-up companies, non-profit organizations, and academic departments. She is passionate about community advocacy and sits on various advisory boards, including the Pan-Canadian Voice for Women’s Housing (PCVWH).

Rhoda Akuol received the African Scholars’ Social Innovation Award 2021, and the EYOB G. NAIZGHI Female Refugee Leadership Award 2019.

Email Address
rhoda.philip@utoronto.ca
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HENT Pillar Advisory Committee