Dr Franc: Regulatory support is crucial to spur innovation in health in Tanzania

He turned the tragedy of losing his sister due to excessive bleeding during childbirth into an opportunity to create an innovation that has become a lifeline for many mothers in the country facing similar challenges.

Afya Lead Limited is a health tech company that deals with improving the quality of healthcare in Africa by providing simple-to-use, accessible, and affordable solutions that can help simplify the accessibility of healthcare in Africa.

“When I was 13 years old, I lost my sister to post-partum haemorrhaging (excessive bleeding), and this was a hard period, and I wanted to do something to help prevent this in the future,” Dr Franc says.

“While studying at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), I met my co-founders, Paschal Kija and James Kalema, and we participated in a hackathon organised by Sahara Ventures to address the issue of maternal health.”

“The challenge was to create a solution that is relevant for Tanzania. Looking back, the traditional means used to prevent excessive bleeding after birth were kangas,” he shares.

“Post-partum haemorrhaging is a leading cause of maternal deaths globally and around 14 million women suffer from PPH annually. Half of that number is attributed to Sub-Saharan African women, with Tanzania contributing about 29 percent of these Sub-Saharan maternal deaths.”

He adds that by drawing inspiration from tradition and innovation, they then designed a belt known as ‘Mkanda Salama’ that could help address the problem.

Mkanda Salama is a Swahili word that means safe belt, which is designed to address the critical issue of post-partum haemorrhaging and works by applying controlled external pressure to the abdomen, effectively compressing the abdominal aorta and rapidly reducing blood loss.

“That was our first product and that was also the birth of Afya Lead. We were just a group of people that met at the university with a vision of solving an African problem,” says Dr Franc.

Looking at the health sector, we often rely on foreign products and Dr Franc says that there are a number of locally designed and produced devices and solutions that, if given a chance, can benefit the local market, especially because they were custom-made to solve local problems.

Dr Franc shares that a stepping stone presented itself to Afya Lead when they won a Sh14 million grant, which helped them register their company and make the minimum viable product of Mkanda Salama.

They then tested the product at Ifakara Referral Hospital (St Francis) and 120 women used Mkanda Salama, which showed effectiveness of over 84 percent.

“This gave us hope that our product does work and helps these women and the results were published in the East African Journal of Science, Innovation and Technology,” Dr Franc shares.

According to Franc, after being able to create Mkanda Salama, they then found another problem with regards to access to health care.

Many Tanzanians still did not have health insurance and the reason many gave was that they could not access these health schemes.

“We designed a mobile application that simplified the availability of health insurance and we started by targeting people living in the informal sector by giving them access to community health funds. With the help of Tamisemi, we started working on this in Morogoro,” he says.

This application was called Pamoja Bima and started off by enrolling about 1000 members. Afya Lead runs three products, two of which are already on the market – Pamoja Bima and Mama Salama delivery kits, and Mkanda Salama, which still awaits approval.

Mama Salama delivery kit is another product that Dr Franc and his team put together to further help maternal healthcare by providing women with essential birthing items that they need.

Many women often go into delivery ill-prepared and this kit; comprising disposable syringes, surgical gloves, a cord clamp, a surgical blade, cotton, mackintosh, a cut gut, and an information pamphlet; helps provide mothers with a safer journey through birth.

While the two products on the market have had success stories of their own, Afya Lead is still pushing to have Mkanda Salama approved for use.

Dr Franc says that its low production cost was a very critical factor for the company because it would mean that mothers in rural Tanzania don’t have to lose their lives to PPH when a solution is available.

Right now, Mkanda Salama only works by applying controlled external pressure to the abdomen, compressing the abdominal aorta and rapidly reducing blood loss.

However, the next phase of this product will integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) to help track more patient parameters, such as their temperature or pressure.

Healthcare and maternal wellness are deep for Dr Franc and the growth of Afya Lead has proven that it is not just a company; it is a community that has benefited and changed the lives of many.

“We embrace technology and digital health specifically because it simplifies the process and improves efficiency. By using a single product that can help reduce excessive bleeding, track important parameters and help healthcare providers help patients faster, we will be tackling more problems,” he shares.

The challenges Dr Franc has had to face stem from a place of distrust.

“Mkanda Salama is an example of the distrust a lot of local innovators face. It is a product that has a high success rate, is loww-cost and is non-intrusive, but it still cannot go to market because it has not been approved,” he shares.

“Medical device innovators are faced with the challenge of not having regulations that clearly govern local innovators and this leads to distrust in local talent.”

“I remember that I was told that I wanted to kill women when I went to register it,” he says, adding that it can be very discouraging.

Where digital health technology is concerned, Dr Franc says that adaptability and advocacy for the awareness and benefits that digital health technology presents are important.

While you may not always get a diagnosis through online consultations, digital health solutions can come in the form of access to quality health coverage, accurate information on health issues and even access to good medical facilities within one’s area.

“People are not fully aware of technology, especially in rural parts of our country, so it takes a long time to convince people to use digital products because of their beliefs and our culture. This needs a lot of effort in advocacy and in product development,” he says.

However, he further added that, despite the challenge, technology has also simplified a lot of work in the health sector.

He shared that currently, a person can buy health insurance using their phone wherever they are, so they don’t need to move around and have a lot of papers to sign.

“You can be at home or at your office and buy insurance. We are working to create a community of women that we can provide education to, connect to healthcare providers and provide other healthcare services they may need,” he elaborates.

Dr Franc says that his experience has shown him that our regulations need to catch up with growing talent to reduce the number of innovators having to rely on international organisations such as the FDA to get certifications for their products.

Dr Franc further adds that there are a lot of great innovations in the country that can improve the quality of health without depending on exports or foreign certification.

Regulators need to engage with young innovators to create policies suited for the future their world is heading into.

“The best part is that there are young people under 25 who are doing these things, so if we embrace our own technology, then we create a good ecosystem that is beneficial to our country and other countries can depend on us,” he says.