HealthTech Hub Innovation Challenge 2024

INTRODUCTION

The HealthTech Hub Africa’s 2024 Innovation Challenge is an exciting opportunity for enterprises to demonstrate their solutions within public health systems. We are calling our current start-up cohort and HTHA alumni to apply for up to $100,000 in funding to advance their ground-breaking solutions in collaboration with public health systems in Africa.

ABOUT HEALTHTECH HUB AFRICA

The HealthTech Hub Africa was designed to nurture health tech start-ups and scale-ups that are committed to addressing pressing healthcare challenges in Africa in partnership with governments and the public sector. The Hub provides a supportive peer and partner ecosystem, unique access to government stakeholders, and resources to foster innovation, promote interoperability and scalability, and drive the development of health technologies in Africa. In addition, the Hub is working alongside start-ups and government partners to develop policy and regulatory recommendations in support of health tech innovation.

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

The HTHA 2024 Innovation Challenge is more than just a competition. It’s a platform empowering innovators to develop concrete use cases for their local public health systems.   With up to $100,000 in funding provided by HTHA, innovators can fast-track and demonstrate the implementation of their solutions in their local public health sector. These demonstrations will help innovators to establish an implementation track record, foster relationships with new public sector stakeholders, generate real-world evidence on feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness, and gather credible insights to refine their solutions.

The challenge awards will be distributed across two tiers, offering distinct opportunities:

a) Tier 1: Scaling Impact within the Public Health System: Eligible organizations can receive funding of up to $100,000 to demonstrate the scalability and effectiveness of their solutions within the public health sector. To qualify, applicants must be part of current or past “scaleups” track of The HealthTech Hub Africa.

b) Tier 2: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Eligible organizations can receive funding of up to $50,000 to develop use cases that address specific healthcare challenges in the public health sector. To qualify, applicants must be part of  the current or past “growth start-ups” or  “scaleups” track of The HealthTech Hub Africa.

By observing and documenting these demonstrations, HTHA continues to build an understanding of the critical enablers and barriers that start-ups encounter when trying to introduce and scale their solutions within the public sector. These insights will inform HTHA’s policy and advocacy agenda.

The HTHA 2024 Innovation Challenge is sponsored by the Novartis Foundation and the Global Fund.

The HealthTech Hub Africa Innovation Challenge 2024 aims to achieve the following goals:

1. To align health tech solutions from innovators with public sector priorities.
2. To catalyse the development of scalable health tech solutions relevant to various African countries.
3. To foster partnerships between HTHA pipeline start-ups and public sector stakeholders
4. To support real-world demonstration of innovative health tech solutions within the public health sector to support population health – attracting more funding and partners for scalability of the solutions.
5. To generate new insights into the regulatory barriers and facilitators of public sector implementation and B2G business models to inform HTHA stakeholders and future versions of the Policy Blueprint
6. To foster collaborative learning across the cohort of winners

CHALLENGE CRITERIA

Primary applicants are required to be members of one of the HealthTech Hub Africa cohorts of enterprises (2022-2024) but should not have received funding previously through HTHA. They may partner with other organizations, including other HTHA members or external organisations.

The applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Innovation and Impact:

• The degree of innovation demonstrated by the solution
• The degree to which the solution addresses a priority problem experienced within the public health sector
• Potential positive impact on population health

Feasibility:

• Clear demonstration of how the health tech solution can be implemented within the given 6-month timeframe, including a skilled & motivated team and a realistic budget that demonstrates how the grant funds will be utilized.

Scalability and Sustainability:

• The potential for the solution to be scaled up and replicated in other regions or communities

Collaboration and Partnerships:

• Evidence of past or future collaboration with relevant public sector stakeholders, such as national or sub-national governments, healthcare providers, public health facilities (e.g., Letter of Support).

Compliance:

• A plan for obtaining necessary approvals (including ethics approvals as required) and ensuring compliance with local health regulatory requirements and standards, including data privacy and security.
• Alignment with national digital health strategies

Clear Success Definition and Measurable Outcomes:

• Well defined impact and success parameters for the use case
• A monitoring and evaluation plan with key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and measure success.

CHALLENGE TRACKS

Innovations should address one or more of the following three public health sector priorities:

1. Access:  Many people face challenges accessing healthcare due to geographical, financial, and social barriers. Solutions in this category aim to improve access and affordability of care for remote and underserved populations, including adolescents and youth. New tech-enabled models of care should demonstrate appropriate health system linkages for those who require additional services. Examples include telemedicine services and person-centered financial transactions.
2. Quality: Poor quality of care is a pervasive issue across African health systems, with more people dying due to lack of quality than due to lack of access. Solutions in this category address one or more of the many drivers of health care quality, including health worker learning and performance management, data quality and effective use, continuity of care and referral linkages, and supply chain management. Examples include person-centered health records; healthcare provider training, decision support, communication, and performance monitoring; referral coordination; prescription and medication management; supply chain management; data management.
3. Client-centeredness: The patient experience is a key determinant of healthcare success. Solutions in this category demonstrate a deliberate focus on the client experience of care, including empowering individuals to actively participate in their healthcare decisions, prevent and manage chronic illness, receive personalized health information, and provide feedback to improve service delivery. Examples include targeted and on-demand communication to persons; personal health tracking; person-based reporting.

HOW TO APPLY

1. Click the “apply” button below to access the application form.
2. Complete the application with details about your startup, innovative solution, project plan and budget.
3. Submit your application before April 30TH 2024 to be considered for the challenge.

Join us in shaping the future of healthcare in Africa – together, we can ignite a revolution in health tech innovation! Apply now and let your startup shine in the HealthTech Hub Africa 2024 Innovation Challenge.

PS: Kindly only use this TEMPLATE to fill out your budget indicating how grant funds will be utilized.