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GenAI can revolutionise public healthcare but ‘guardrails by design’ are needed to protect patients

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GenAI provides hope for an equitable healthcare revolution, but advances in technology must never come at the cost of patient rights

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 19, 2023/APO Group/ — 

The next generation of ethical Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) provides new hope for an equitable healthcare revolution – but advances in technology must never come at the cost of patient rights. 

This was the consensus amongst top African and American health AI experts who participated in a webinar (https://apo-opa.info/3O1seIV) about the impact of GenAI on healthcare. The webinar was hosted by Vantage Health Technology (www.VantageHealth.Tech) – part of BroadReach Group, a social enterprise focussed on health equity globally. Through Vantage, the company has provided AI-led health-tech support to multiple public healthcare systems and diseases including in Africa and the USA for close to a decade.

“The fundamental issue in healthcare, whether you are in Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, or the USA, is that demand outstrips supply in terms of health services, doctors, nurses, and medications. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, there are 0.2 doctors per 1000 people,” explains Dr John Sargent, co-founder of the BroadReach Group (www.BroadReachCorporation.com).

He says we are trying to deliver on an antiquated model of “sick care”, where there is a certain ratio of doctors to patients. “We need to change this paradigm to be more effective by matching the supply and demand sides of our health systems in new digital ways.” Dr Sargent, who is a Harvard alumni and former World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year, says that while GenAI has the potential to revolutionise how healthcare supply and demand are balanced, it is not the be-all-and-end-all of health tech. “The aim is not to get distracted by a shiny new toy – we need to put the patient first by protecting privacy and training our models against bias. We must always remember that technology is just a tool in service of patient care and supporting the healthcare workforce to improve health outcomes.”  

Using GenAI to tackle specific diseases such as HIV and AIDS 

Jaya Plmanabhan (https://apo-opa.info/43wY6KX), chief scientist at innovation consultancy Newfire Global (https://apo-opa.info/44UF3eR) who trains health AI models for a living, says he is particularly excited about how large language models could be trained to revolutionise virtual expertise on diseases such as HIV and AIDS. “We call these ‘Role Specific Domain Models’ and they have the potential to be programmed to know everything about a particular disease, to better guide healthcare professionals on how to treat patients. This is a tremendously exciting prospect in the mission to end new HIV infections by 2030.”  

These Private Language Models (PLMs) become oracles on a subject and are especially useful in helping solve hard problems in HIV management, such as loss to follow-up – a term for patients who drop off treatment. “Trying to find patients is critical to ensure that they don’t become resistant to drugs due to skipping doses. We can make our outreach much more engaging through conversational messages in their mother tongue and this can help us get people back into the clinic and back into care,” explains Ruan Viljoen (https://apo-opa.info/3XZcdHV), Chief Technology Officer of the BroadReach Group.

Start with the problem, not the solution 

“There is a quote that says we should fall in love with the problem, not the solution, which in this case is AI,” says Viljoen.  “I believe the biggest challenge is still health inequity – healthcare access can vary depending on race, location, or age.” 

Viljoen said GenAI can help solve practical problems, such as frontline healthcare workers being overburdened and not having enough time. “What are the repetitive, administrative tasks that are stealing their time? For instance, GenAI can help nurses with automated note-taking in patient interviews, relieving an administrative burden. The goal is not to replace the role but to free up their time for value-added work.”  

One of the greatest uses of AI in health is to help healthcare workers focus on the next best action. “We can use large datasets and extract insights to help healthcare workers, delivered via easy-to-digest and secure messaging like emails or text messages. This is nothing new – we’ve done this in some form for nearly a decade using our AI-enabled platform, Vantage (https://apo-opa.info/3qJ1Tax). What I’m most excited about, is how we can augment the quality of the interactions to bring together human and artificial intelligence.” 

We need to change this paradigm to be more effective by matching the supply and demand sides of our health systems in new digital ways

Heeding the risks and creating guardrails

Vedantha Singh (https://apo-opa.info/3OglE2l), an AI ethics in healthcare researcher and virologist from the University of Cape Town, said the top ethical considerations for AI in healthcare are privacy, accuracy, and fairness. She urged at all AI systems should start with guardrails and ethics within their foundational design.

“There is a perception that there are no regulations for the use of AI in healthcare, but to assume we are operating in the wild west is not true. International bodies are sharing guidelines and regulation is slowly evolving – including in Africa. Egypt, Rwanda and Mauritius already have strong AI policies,” says Singh. This includes an emphasis on human labour not being completely replaced and giving patients agency over how their data is used.

Singh says that companies must embed ethical guardrails – aka ‘guardrails by design’ in their health products from the start. Plmanabhan adds that GenAI can reduce costs and personalise care, but it must be used carefully. “For example, if the data is biased, the model will be biased. GenAI can also be used to create fake patient profiles to commit fraud.” Unbiased, quality data which complies to regulations such as HIPAA and POPIA or GDPR must be prioritised.

Plmanabhan emphasises the importance of patients giving informed consent, knowing how GenAI is being used on their data. “We need to stay committed to immovable core principles – we cannot compromise on the human in the middle of it all.”

Reaching the hardest to reach patients 

Viljoen says GenAI is not just improving healthcare for urban patients. Those in deeply rural areas could benefit too.

“Internet connectivity and satellite communication are becoming more ubiquitous. A few things provide hope: Big cloud providers are providing more ‘edge computing’ for rural areas, the mobile phone is becoming a very powerful computer in the pockets of people all around the world, and small rural clinics can use smaller GenAI models which require smaller amounts of data and computing power– they don’t need to use ChatGPT,” says Viljoen.  

Plmanabhan explains that there are secondary GenAI models that can function offline. The primary models are always online, with and secondary models sending information back to the primary model once it is back online.  

Hope for an equitable healthcare revolution

GenAI can increase affordable and equitable healthcare through the automation of routine tasks. To create a world where more equitable healthcare exists, it is critical to establish strong partnerships between donors, policy makers, researchers, and healthcare implementers.  

Viljoen concludes, “We need to be experiment rapidly with AI, and deploy cautiously. It’s an incredible time to work in health technology and to see how we can use it to at last achieve health equity.” 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of BroadReach Group.

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Hainan FTP marks 6-month milestone of special customs operations, signs deals during Hong Kong visit

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June 30, 2026

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HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 June 2026 – As the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) marked the six-month milestone since the launch of its full special customs operations, a Hainan provincial delegation wrapped up a three-day visit to Hong Kong. During the visit, the delegation signed deepened cooperation agreements with several major local chambers of commerce and promoted the latest policies introduced since the island-wide special customs operations took effect.

According to data released by Hainan Province during the visit, Hainan’s foreign trade has surged since the launch of special customs operations. As of June 17, the province’s total goods imports and exports reached RMB 173.98 billion (approximately US$24 billion), up 54.6% year on year. Imports of zero-tariff goods hit RMB 2.645 billion, a 120% jump that generated tariff savings of RMB 440 million. A total of 172,100 new market entities were registered—a 61% increase—including 1,240 foreign-invested enterprises. Zero-tariff items now account for 74% of all tariff lines, benefiting more than 12,000 market entities.

During the Hong Kong visit, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Hainan Provincial Committee (CCPIT Hainan) signed separate deepened cooperation MOUs with the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. Under the MOUs, the parties will establish a regular liaison mechanism for the periodic exchange of economic and trade information, and will promote collaboration in areas including professional services, green finance, the digital economy, supply chain management, and cultural tourism. Mutual enterprise service desks will be set up to provide consulting services regarding policies and projects. The parties will leverage their complementary strengths to help Chinese mainland enterprises access overseas markets via Hong Kong, while facilitating Hong Kong companies’ entry into the Chinese mainland through Hainan.

The delegation also held talks with the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, exploring ways for British and American businesses to leverage Hainan’s value-added processing tariff exemptions and multifunctional free trade accounts to position themselves in regional supply chains and cross-border investment and financing. HSBC, De Beers, and other British firms are already active in Hainan, and the UK served as the Guest of Honor country at the 2025 China International Consumer Products Expo.

According to industry analysts, amid the shifting international trade landscape, Hainan is leveraging Hong Kong’s “super-connector” role to accelerate its integration with global capital and business networks, while simultaneously offering the Hong Kong business community a policy testing ground for entering the Chinese mainland market.

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Africa’s Grid Constraints Come into Focus as Regional Markets Push Toward Integration

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June 26, 2026

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Africa

Regional power pools are advancing and renewable pipelines are growing, but the regulatory and financial architecture needed to connect them remains the continent’s most critical infrastructure gap – an issue central to the Power Africa Today conference at AEW 2026

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 25, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa’s electricity demand is projected to nearly double to 2,291 TWh by 2050, requiring an estimated $30 billion in transmission and grid infrastructure investment to unlock and integrate new generation capacity. Yet across the continent, grid systems are struggling to keep pace with rapidly expanding supply pipelines and rising demand.

In Nigeria, repeated nationwide grid collapses as recently as February 2026 underscore the fragility of aging transmission infrastructure. In East Africa, tower failures along the 428 km Loiyangalani-Suswa line temporarily stranded output from Lake Turkana Wind Power – Africa’s largest wind installation. Meanwhile, demand growth pressures are accelerating across North Africa, where electricity consumption is expected to rise by around 50% by 2035, driven by urbanization, desalination projects, and climate-related temperature increases.

Despite these constraints, generation investment continues to accelerate across Africa, particularly in renewables, gas-to-power and hybrid systems. However, without equivalent investment in transmission and interconnection, much of this new capacity risks being underutilized or stranded. This growing imbalance between generation and grid capacity is driving a sharper focus on system-wide planning and regional market design – issues that will be central to the newly launched Power Africa Today conference at African Energy Week 2026. The platform will bring together policymakers, utilities, investors and developers to explore how regional interconnection, cross-border trading frameworks and financing structures can better align generation growth with grid expansion.

Power Markets Experiment with Reform

Alongside infrastructure challenges, Africa’s electricity sector is undergoing gradual – but uneven – market reform. Most countries still operate vertically integrated systems dominated by state utilities, but a growing number are introducing competitive frameworks to attract private capital and improve efficiency.

Zimbabwe opened its electricity market to full private participation across generation, transmission and distribution in 2025, targeting $9 billion in new investment. South Africa is advancing one of the continent’s most ambitious grid expansion programs, with plans for 14,500 km of new transmission lines and 133,000 MVA of transformer capacity by 2034, alongside mechanisms designed to crowd in private financing. Kenya, meanwhile, has introduced open access regulations enabling independent power producers to wheel electricity directly to multiple off-takers, reshaping how generation assets interface with the grid.

Interconnected electricity markets are the foundation of Africa’s industrial future

Regional Integration Remains Fragmented

Efforts to connect Africa’s fragmented power systems are progressing, though at different speeds across regions. In Southern Africa, the World Bank’s RETRADE SAPP program, approved in 2025, is deploying $12 million to strengthen renewable integration and transmission capacity across 12 member states. In East Africa, the Ethiopia–Kenya–Tanzania Electricity Highway is now in trial operations at up to 2,000 MW, marking a significant step toward a more interconnected regional grid.

West Africa is also moving toward deeper integration, with permanent synchronization of the West Africa Power Pool expected in 2026. Analysts, including the African Finance Corporation, argue that such synchronization is critical to unlocking large-scale hydropower potential and industrial demand across the region. Longer term, full synchronization between the Eastern and Southern African power pools – targeted for the end of 2026 – could create one of the world’s largest cross-border electricity trading corridors.

Building Bankable Financial Architectures

While interconnection is advancing, infrastructure alone is not enough to create investable electricity markets. Investors consistently cite the lack of standardized offtake structures, creditworthy counterparties, and cross-border payment guarantees as key barriers to scaling capital deployment.

New models are emerging to address these constraints. Africa GreenCo, operating across Zambia, Namibia and South Africa, is helping to aggregate independent power producers under a single creditworthy intermediary, standardizing power purchase agreements and reducing counterparty risk. At a broader level, AUDA-NEPAD estimates that Africa requires around $30 billion in additional investment to complete priority transmission corridors and establish three fully interconnected regional trading blocs by 2030.

“Interconnected electricity markets are the foundation of Africa’s industrial future,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “The question at Africa Energy Week is not whether integration is possible – the evidence is already there. The question is which regulatory frameworks and financial structures will get projects to financial close, and which markets will be ready when capital is looking to move.”

The Power Africa Today conference will run alongside AEW 2026, taking place October 12–16 in Cape Town, and will focus on the regulatory, financial and infrastructural architecture needed to build interconnected electricity markets capable of attracting institutional capital and delivering reliable, cross-border power at scale.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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African Development Bank Group and La Francophonie Sign Partnership Agreement to Promote Youth Employment in Francophone Africa

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June 26, 2026

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The agreement was signed during a meeting between the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, and African Development Bank Group President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah in Paris, France

PARIS, France, June 25, 2026/APO Group/ –The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) and The International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) on Wednesday entered a strategic partnership to strengthen digital skills, employability, and entrepreneurship of young people and women in five African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar.

 

The agreement was signed during a meeting between the Secretary General of La Francophonie, Louise Mushikiwabo, and African Development Bank Group President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah in Paris, France. The agreement will address a major challenge faced by countries in the Francophone world and across Africa: providing young people with access to opportunities offered by the digital economy and fostering the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs.

The partnership calls for the implementation of training programs in digital professions and entrepreneurship, in fields such as web and mobile development, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data analysis. Participants will also receive guidance toward employment and self-employment, as well as support for innovation and business creation, notably through training camps, prototyping activities, and partnerships with incubators and accelerators.

The African Development Bank Group and OIF will also work with national authorities in these five countries and training institutions to sustainably strengthen local capacities and promote ownership of the programs by national stakeholders. An initial pilot phase, lasting 12 to 24 months, will be rolled out in the five partner countries, followed by a gradual expansion to other member states depending on the results achieved.

The African Development Bank Group is pursuing a bold agenda based on “Four Cardinal Points” developed by Dr Ould Tah, the third of which is ‘Turning Demographics into a Dividend.’ This is about strategically converting Africa’s rapidly growing and youthful population into a decisive engine of inclusive growth, productivity, and innovation through large-scale investment in human capital—particularly youth and women.

 

It sees Africa’s growing young population not as a risk, but as a major asset. With the right policies and investments, this potential can create jobs, help small businesses grow, bring more informal businesses into the formal economy, and equip young people with the skills needed for the future. By investing more in education, science and technology, vocational training, entrepreneurship, finance, and digital tools, Africa can help its people drive economic transformation, stay competitive, and build lasting, resilient growth.

The OIF said the agreement marked the first concrete step in its initiative to mobilize innovative and additional funding for its most impactful projects.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

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