Amid Barbados’ evolving health landscape, a bold call is going out to innovators: build the tools, apps, and systems that could redefine how the nation delivers healthcare.
With rising costs, chronic disease burdens, and imported technology that often misses the mark, a new movement is challenging Barbadians to engineer solutions rooted in their own realities.
Community activator for FutureHEALTH, Dr Kia Lewis, said inefficiencies, high disease burdens, and mounting financial costs are straining the health sector and require an urgent focus on innovation and collaboration.
Homegrown solutions
She said: “Within the health sector, there are significant challenges. If we look at health outcomes, there are significant challenges with things like non-communicable diseases. There’s a large disease burden associated with those, along with death. And problems that we’re having in the health sector are also a substantial financial cost annually, with millions of dollars being spent.”
Community activator for FutureHEALTH Dr Kia Lewis (GP).
Dr Lewis explained that while imported health technologies can be useful, they often fail to fully meet local needs: “It’s important for us to be able to develop solutions that are fit for purpose as well. A lot of the health technologies that we adopt have been developed overseas. And obviously, while some of them work sufficiently, they’re not always fit for purpose because our health context is quite different to what you will find in bigger places like the US and the UK.”
The creation of locally designed tools could not only strengthen national health systems but also bring economic benefits, Dr Lewis said.
“It’s not just a social benefit to our health care services, the ability for our health care providers to more efficiently provide services, the ability for our patients to benefit from improved diagnostics and a smoother path through the healthcare sector, but it’s also the potential for significant income generation.”
Her comments come as FutureHEALTH launches the FutureHEALTH Incubator, the island’s first dedicated programme to support the development of health technology solutions.
The incubator will offer structured guidance to innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to create and test solutions for national and regional health challenges.
Three tracks
Project coordinator for FutureHEALTH, Joycelyn Alleyne, said the incubator will operate through three tracks, each targeting different stages of development.
The first, known as the Ideation Track, is designed for early-stage innovators who have identified a healthcare problem but need support to transform their ideas into practical solutions.
The second track, the Minimum Viable Product Track, will assist early-stage start-ups that have already developed beginner-stage prototypes. Alleyne explained that this phase focuses on refining the minimum viable product or prototype and clinically validating the technology to ensure it effectively meets healthcare needs.
The final Pilot Track will provide an opportunity for start-ups to test and validate their solutions on a larger scale with a clinical partner. Applications are now open for the Ideation Track, which targets healthcare workers with ideas to improve care delivery, students from medicine, science, technology or business disciplines, entrepreneurs and start-ups exploring health solutions, and tech professionals interested in applying their skills to health challenges.
Dr Lewis said the incubator represents a necessary step in reshaping how Barbados approaches healthcare innovation. “We recognise a need, an urgent need for innovation. Also recognising the way that the world is going, health technology is a blossoming, blooming field. There is great financial benefit to developing health technology,” she said. “The Incubator is a space where talent, technology, and creativity come together to create solutions that improve lives.”
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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