AI Takes on Healthcare Inequalities in Nigeria
LONDON, United Kingdom — Nigerian healthcare venture mDoc has launched an AI-powered chatbot to leverage accessibility to preventative care for incommunicable diseases.
Kem, mDoc’s virtual health coach, uses the large language model (LLM) of ChatGPT-4 to enable people living with or at risk of chronic health conditions to lead healthy lives.
Diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases are the prime cause of mortality across sub-Saharan Africa today. Between 2000 and 2019, the number of deaths from such incommunicable illnesses (NCD) has increased from 24 per cent to 37 per cent.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said, “The growing burden of noncommunicable diseases poses a grave threat to the health and lives of millions of people in Africa: over a third of deaths in the region are due to these illnesses”.
“What is particularly concerning is that that premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases are rising among people younger than 70 years,” Dr Moeti added.
Each year, 17 million lives can be saved globally from premature deaths solely by early diagnosis and preventative measures. 85 per cent of the figure comes from developing countries due to the lack of critical care infrastructures.
The round-the-clock availability of Kem, the chatbot, on mobile phones and its ability to answer in simple terms makes the application an effective solution for remote communities for primary health advice in unusual hours.
L. Nneka Mobisson, Co-founder and CEO of mDoc, said, “We recognised that by investing in preventative care and focusing on behaviour change and nudges, we’d be able to stop what happened to my father from happening to other families.” Mobisson’s father suffered a massive stroke and succumbed prematurely after a brief period of paralysis and psychosis.
Dr Aldo Faisal of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Healthcare at Imperial College London said that deploying AI can “improve the cost of care and improve outcomes” by enhancing the efficiency of diagnostic methods.
AI is currently being used in healthcare ecosystems to assist surgeries, develop pharmaceuticals, automate outbreak response, transcribe medical records, and promote communication between patients and doctors.
The market for AI-assisted healthcare is estimated to grow from $11 billion
The technology can promote equality in healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) by reducing the cost of medical treatment. However, its research and implications are majorly limited in wealthy nations.
Philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates has said, “The world needs to make sure that everyone — and not just people who are well-off — benefits from artificial intelligence. Governments and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it.”
mDoc Healthcare received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2023 to onboard the LLM of ChatGPT into their virtual self-care assistant Kem.
Integration with artificial intelligence has allowed Kem to solve a wide range of queries with evidence-based precision. It has interpreted user behaviours to evolve into a culturally relevant product.
Mobisson’s team is running a community trial to escape the loop of human bias that LLMs are often prone to.
This story was published at The Borgen Project on January 23, 2024.
