Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria Counts Down to Nigeria’s 1st Healthcare Hackathon | Saturday 22nd February 2014

Following the launch of the Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace (NHIM), the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN), the public private institution led by Alhaji Aliko Dangote (Founding Patron), Bill Gates, Jim Ovia (Co-chair), Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate (Co-chair), Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Sola David Borha, Muntaqa Umar-sadiq (MD / CEO) and others, is convening the first ever healthcare hackathon on Saturday 22nd February 2014 at 296 Herbert Macaulay way, Lagos. This event is in partnership with the Ministry of Communication and Technology open data day, the Saving One Million Lives Initiative (SOMLI), NPHCDA, World Bank, Code for Africa, Co-creation Hub, Idea Hub and Cousant Technologies.

The Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) is the country’s foremost private sector platform to contribute to the saving one million lives movement and advance progress in meeting the health MDGs; by focusing on innovation, partnerships, advocacy and impact investments.

As part of its innovation pillar, PHN is inviting computer programmers, software and mobile application developers, user interface designers, and subject matter analysts to register and participate in the day long healthcare hackathon where household, facility based and program level health data covering 24 States in the country will be unveiled – mapped against other socio-economic, fiscal and GPRS location data.

During its kick off, Alhaji Aliko Dangote stated that, “for too long the asymmetry and dearth of healthcare data has constrained the growth of innovation and limited the application of technological advances in the heath sector”. In his remarks, the Co-chair of PHN, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate said that the “Private Sector Health Alliance has brokered this innovative marketplace between public sector agencies who will be disclosing national healthcare data sets and tech innovators who will be developing innovative tech solutions to real public health challenges“.

The MD/CEO of the Private Sector Health Alliance, Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq added that the healthcare hackathon is an important first step in building a data hub for the health sector and sparking the development of mobile based crowd sourcing applications, predictive, surveillance and data collection tools, software performance management programs, visual data analytics and other healthcare tools. These if supported to scale can play an enabling role in leapfrogging constraints and advancing Nigeria’s progress in meeting the health related MDGs.

During the panel discussion, the Technical lead of SOMLI and Special Adviser to the Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Kelechi Ohiri said that one of the pillars of the SOMLI is to expand the use of mobile/ICT technology to improve access to care and data.
Private Sector Health Alliance will provide cash prizes to the top five winning teams and admit selected promising innovations into the PHN health innovation hub, where incubation support as well as linkages to public and private markets will be created and innovations supported to achieve scale. The countdown to the broader health innovation challenge will begin on the 22nd of February. To register for the healthcare hackathon please go to www.phn.ng

Alhaji Aliko Dangote recently inaugurated a 14-member NHIM steering committee which includes members of the startup community such as the Wennovation Hub, Helios Investment Partners from the investment community, and other private and public sector members such as GSK Pharmaceuticals, Etisalat Telecoms, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Save One Million Lives Initiative and the Center for Health Market Innovations, etc.

It also has international partners including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery (IPIHD) at Duke University/WEF, and the Centre for Affordable Healthcare Technology, University of Oxford.

GMD of Access bank, Herbert Wigwe will chair the Steering committee while MD / CEO of the Private Sector Health Alliance will act as the executive secretary of the NHIM Steer co.

NHIM will comprise 3 core elements; a virtual health innovation portal, health innovation hub / incubator and Health innovation Challenges/ hackathons.

To register for the healthcare hackathon please go to www.phn.ng or http://nigeria.dbootcamp.org/registration//

Date: Saturday 22nd February 2014
Venue: 296, Herbert Macaulay way, Lagos

For more information you can visit their website: www.phn.ng | View their Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/Privatesectorhealthalliance | Follow them on Twitter: @phn_alliance

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