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Transforming Healthcare: Advancing Pharmacy Profession Through Digital and Medicinal Innovations

With increasing technological advancements, Africa is witnessing growth in digital and medicinal innovations from telepharmacy to Electronic Health Record (EHR), mobile health apps and advanced drug delivery systems. However, implementation remains limited due to unequal distribution of resources and healthcare caused by poor infrastructure, illiteracy, poverty, weak leadership, corruption, poor quality of education, and a scarcity of skilled professionals 1. The leading challenges in African healthcare systems include inadequate human resources (34.29%) and inadequate budgetary allocation to health (30%) 2. Addressing these challenges will foster innovation, equipping the pharmaceutical workforce and facilitating the delivery of quality healthcare by improving treatment efficiency, reducing adverse effects, saving time, and expanding access to care. This paper explores the challenges, solutions, and recommendations for advancing and strengthening digital health in Africa.

Key Challenges to Advancing the Pharmacy Profession in Africa

African countries face several healthcare innovation challenges including:

  • digital divide
  • social inequality
  • brain drain

which provides a limited research ecosystem, skills and education gaps, unequal distribution and shortages of the pharmaceutical workforce in some areas. Digital illiteracy, airtime costs, lack of trained personnel, limited funding, and low government subsidies compound these challenges. The World Health Organisation defines digital health as the “use of technologies for healthcare.”

The Digital Divide and Social Inequality

The uneven distribution of technology access exacerbates the existing social inequities. Digitalization is a transformative opportunity, yet as of 2022, only 36% of Africa’s population had access to broadband internet access, hindering widespread access to its high-quality benefits, especially for those in remote and poor subregions 3. Despite growth in phone technology, digital literacy remains low, with the irony being that those with the most “sophisticated gadgets” are unable to use them. Inadequate infrastructure and the shortage of trained personnel in rural areas make digital innovation a “distant dream”. Furthermore, the high cost of data, compounded by minimal government subsidies, places an additional burden on the pharmaceutical workforce, increasing healthcare costs, hindering innovations within the pharmacy profession.

Brain Drain and a Limited Research Ecosystem

Brain drain and limited research ecosystems significantly impede advancements in the pharmaceutical profession 4. The emigration of skilled professionals has led to an uneven distribution of skilled healthcare professionals in Africa, with many migrating to more developed countries with low disease burdens 5,6 but better standards of living, better job satisfaction, and opportunities for professional development 7. Brain drain in Africa has created a critical shortage of healthcare professionals to train students in research, which is a core driver of innovation, whether digital or medicinal. Africa carries 25% of the world’s disease burden yet has only 3% of the world’s economic resources 5, with this unevenness the research system is still weak.

Research output in Africa is low due to:

  • inadequate infrastructure
  • poorly equipped laboratories
  • high-quality research centers
  • outdated resources.

Despite the African population being 17% of the global population, it contributes to only 2% of research output 8,10 even though it is significantly burdened by a lot of communicable diseases 9,10. In addition, an unstable political environment, poor governance, and corruption undermine efforts towards research and innovation. With minimal government support and heavy reliance on international funding, local private research institutions lack motivation and resources. High data costs and frequent power outages further hinder communication, collaboration and the effective use of sophisticated laboratory machines, risking their damage.

Gaps in Pharmacy Education and Training

Gaps in pharmacy education and training hinder digital and medicinal innovations due to the lack of training or trained personnel. Pharmacy training remains focused on traditional roles while using outdated curricula without teaching digital health technologies, which in practice supports and optimizes patient care while allowing pharmacists to focus more on clinical-focused roles 11. The lack of exposure to latest innovations and interdisciplinary personal relationships with fields like data science and biomedical engineering makes it difficult for pharmacists to co-create and fully understand technology-driven healthcare solutions. Skills gaps persist due to limited personnel development on digital health and medicinal innovation, for without these, which are lagging behind.

Limited Financial Resources and Weak Infrastructure

Limited financial resources in both the government and private sectors pose a major barrier to innovation in Africa. Even when the funds are available, governments often prioritize emergency crises like wars and education. The funds allocated to health are often spent on infectious diseases and rarely on funding digital health tools, research in medicinal innovation, and technology training for pharmacy students. This underfunding affects the WHO Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which aims to ensure healthy lives, access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. 12 Digital health technologies, such as e-prescription and web-based early warning systems, are crucial for the regular monitoring of medicine availability, pricing, and affordability. Yet, without funding, these remain underutilized. African countries are currently facing a multitude of interconnected economic constraints related to debt and poverty which have affected the health sector, education, and infrastructure, leading to a weakened research system with little to no medicinal innovation .13

Underinvestment in healthcare and technological structures hampers digital and medicinal innovations in pharmacies. In several African countries, limited funding has failed to boost the already weakened research system, for which research is the core factor for bringing in new innovation. Insufficient investment in motivating researchers, creating good laboratories and promoting quality education of the pharmaceutical workforce. Medicinal innovations such as pharmacogenomics are the leading practices yielding optimal patient care.

Lack of technological infrastructure such as reliable internet and digital systems, power supply, data storage, analytics and data security tools slows the speed of innovation since pharmacies mostly operate with computers, internet, software and power to run digital records and e-prescriptions. All of which is not feasible since the rate of power is like that of the rains in the desert. Underinvestment in health, which is funding production facilities and laboratories, has caused countries to depend almost completely on imported drugs; as a result, the cost and access to essential medication are high and stifle pharmaceutical research on drug discovery. Even when private institutions try to put in place producing forms, the high tax levels discourage them.

The challenges in advancing pharmacy through digital and medicinal innovation are not the fault of pharmacists but stem largely from gaps in their education, as it is usually geared towards traditional pharmacy roles. Pharmacy curricula, especially in Cameroon, lack coverage of emerging fields like personalized medicine and digital health, which are important for shaping their competencies and skills 14. Moreover, pharmacists in Cameroon are still seen mainly as dispensers: “les vendeurs de médicaments” despite their long training (7 years)and low pay15. Poorly equipped laboratories push education to focus more on theory rather than a healthy balance of learning in the classroom and applying. Research methodology isn’t continuously emphasised during training, and PharmD students tend to get familiar with research at the Master’s level. Lack of information about the new fields in pharmacy and how to efficiently use the already present digital tools and resources for continuous personal development, impeding effective thinking and consequently innovation.

Strategies and Recommendations for Progress

Bridging the Digital Divide and Economic Gaps

To bridge the digital divide and social inequities, infrastructure must be expanded in underserved areas. Public and private partnerships should invest in broadband, mobile networks and affordable digital devices for rural and low-income communities tailored to their local languages, hence promoting digital literacy, which will reduce language barriers and ease adherence of the population to digital health. These measures reduce the rural-urban digital gap and empower vulnerable populations. To address economic constraints and competing priorities, governments should allocate a fixed percentage of the health budget. Joint financing from the government, private sector and international sponsors should be adopted to support digital health as a better alternative to borrowing since most African countries are heavily indebted.

With the funding, countries can integrate existing digital health programs to maximise the use of cost-effective technologies to be bought. The funding raised should rigorously be followed up by a common African inert body which would have its subregions in each African country, for which they will follow up on the appropriate use of funds for digital health innovation to avoid mismanagement, corruption and embezzlement. These approaches will make digital health sustainable, ensuring its long-term viability. Beyond solving challenges, it is equally essential to strengthen digital health system this can be done by implementing a combination of short term solutions, such as digital literacy training and mobile health, clinics, and long-term strategies, like developing a national digital health strategy and investing in infrastructure for long-term sustainability and scalability.

Combating Brain Drain and Strengthening Research

To combat brain drain, the government should offer better salaries, research grants and career opportunities for researchers and healthcare professionals. Digital platforms can help the diaspora mentor others, reducing professionals leaving and motivating the diaspora to return and make changes in their countries. Research sparks innovation since it generates new ideas or results with regard to key needs. This symbiotic relationship fuels progress and advancement of various fields in the profession. To boost advancement in research, young researchers are to be the catalyst for the changes and demonstrate proactive engagement in policy and community outreach in order to tailor their research towards the people to make it impactful by establishing youth-led health research innovation hubs which would serve as a centre where young researchers can develop and direct innovative research while tailoring problem-solving to local health challenges, making research relevant and impactful at the local level creating digital home platforms to ease inclusivity, access and collaboration between African researchers. Youth representation in health research policy-making bodies fosters innovation, inclusivity and equity. Lastly, improving research infrastructure will strengthen local research in universities and the countries at large.

Reforming Pharmacy Education and Training

Revise curricula to match the resources and realities in various countries while integrating AI, digital health and data science into pharmacy education. Other recommendations include:

  • Promoting interdisciplinary exchanges, talks and excursions to help connect students and professionals of different fields that are involved in digital health to make the co-creation of health digital tools smooth.
  • Encouraging mentorship by establishing networks and encouraging professionals to take part in digital events like those co-delivered by FIP-TAG (Technology Advisory Group) where discussions such as telepharmacy, artificial intelligence, mobile health, digital therapeutics and wearables, among others, are dissected.
  • Also, scholarships can be provided to under-represented groups to encourage their entry into digital health fields.

These initiatives ensure a digitally competent workforce.

Building Robust Infrastructure and Policy

Addressing healthcare and technology infrastructure across African nations requires a robust political commitment and innovative financing. Public and private partnerships should be incentivized through tax breaks and grants on essential medicines and digital equipment such as computers and solar energy systems, enabling community pharmacies, particularly in rural areas, to adopt and maintain digital systems since the problems of electricity and internet access would have been addressed. Development banks and financial institutions should offer low-interest loans to local entrepreneurs for building data centers, diagnostic laboratories, and small-scale pharmaceutical plants. This blended finance model can attract private investors while easing public budget burdens. Also, regulatory bodies must streamline licensing for start-ups providing digital health services like cloud-based e-prescription, while ensuring compliance with security standards. Telecommunication operators’ taxes could help subsidize internet access and mobile data for health institutions.

To drive local innovation, targeted research grants from international donors and national sources should be used to equip laboratories with advanced tools so as to empower local researchers to lead critical pharmacogenomic studies, hence reducing dependency on foreign laboratories. Institutionalizing continuous professional development is critical to continuously train the pharmaceutical workforce using these to prevent infrastructure underutilization. Governments must also strengthen e-pharmacy logistics by upgrading national postal systems coupled with infrastructural development to provide reliable medication delivery, particularly to remote areas1. Finally, the World Bank’s Digital Economy for Africa must continue pushing for broadband expansion, ensuring that rural communities are not left behind and also ensuring that digital tools are not just developed but deployed where they are most needed.

Conclusion: A Path to a Digital Health Revolution

Africa stands at the precipice of a digital health revolution, exemplified by Kenya’s M-Pesa for mobile health payments, South Africa’s use of telemedicine and Rwanda’s drone delivery system for medical supplies. However, without visionary leadership and prudent fund management, ingenious projects risk collapse. Hence, coordinated action is imperative; stakeholders must unite to bridge the gap between potential and tangible progress.

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