Supporting healthcare startups: A new movement to accelerate cures in Sudan, the Middle-East and Sub-Saharan Africa

5^th World Heart and Brain Conference

September 24-26, 2018 Abu Dhabi, UAE

Anmar Homeida

Sudanese Medical Innovation Community, Sudan

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Cardiovasc Dis Diagn

Abstract :

As one of the developing countries, Sudan has just emerged from a protracted period of conflicts that has brought disaster on its people, directly and indirectly. While some areas have witnessed war, others have suffered from the strain of hosting displaced populations. Others have been affected as a result of the diversion of resources meant for development. Startup Weekend Health-Wad Medani is a new movement to accelerate cure, change and empower the access to health for all. Our goal is to bring together the healthcare community, designers, IT professionals and entrepreneurs to facilitate the formation of new ideas. Startup Weekend Health-Wad Medani was held on the 4th-6th/August/2016 at the Cultural Palace Main Hall of Wad Medani and the buildings of Wad Medani College of Medical Science and Technology. There were more than 30 projects with wide, multi-disciplinary areas of experience; there were doctors, medical students, engineers, IT experts, etc. There were about 80 participants with different skill sets, including IT, finance, marketing, medicine and healthcare. By the end of the final pitches on the first day of the event, only 10 projects continued on to form teams. Examples of the winners who participated in the Startup Weekend event are Safer Life; a project aimed towards ending poor drug interactions by doing proper counseling for patients. SudaCare; a project oriented to support spreading medical knowledge for citizens. Now we have established the first office in the MEA region to support medical innovation among medical societies. We are here to fuel the spread of entrepreneurship in the healthcare and medicinal industry in Sudan, influencing the youth, doctors, professors and medical field students. We fully support the movement for better care, with cost effective practices that support our poor societies using inexpensive technology. Although we have taken a step in the right direction, we need the push to continue in innovation and entrepreneurship in these field-fueling more innovative projects that will accelerate cures for our society and the world.

Biography :

Anmar Homeida is the Founder and Team Leader, Executive Director of Sudanese Medical Innovation Community, Medical Education Development and Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira. He is a Facilitator, Organizer and Founder of Startup Weekend Health, Wad Medani, Founder, Curator and Primary Organizer of TEDx, University of Gezira.

E-mail: anmar1689@gmail.com