Passionate innovator

Briefly talk about your journey in health innovation.

When I joined Mbarara University of Science and Technology in 2017 to do medicine, I wanted to ensure my education at the university was different from what I had previously done.

I started participating in activities outside school, which led me to attend the One Health Institute at Makerere University in 2018. I established the One Health Innovation club where I started the Climate Change Project to equip the youth with knowledge and skills to develop solutions towards problems caused by climate change.  We held different activities such as  the national youth conference on climate change in collaboration with Youth Go Green. I worked on it for years before handing it over to another team.

I have worked on startups such as the Patients Centred Care Movement Africa, which looks at ensuring that the next generation of health professionals have the knowledge and skills to deliver patient-centred care  and advocates for it.  We have grown with a team of health professional students with a membership of 1,000 people in six countries.

I worked with the Federation of African Medical Students Association where we started working on the technical working group on Covid-19. It aimed to create a platform for health professionals and students in Africa to join the fight against Covid-19 through research and advocacy.

The technical working group got us representation at the African Union Youth Frontal on Covid-19.

What are you up to?

I am working on two projects, the first is on leveraging data science techniques to improve the malaria diagnosis and eradication of the disease.

The second project is working on data science techniques to guide the use of modern contraceptives in predicting advanced effects.

What is your inspiration behind health innovation in Africa?

The need to create pushed me into the field of innovation because people who create define what the world is.

I learnt that the things we base our arguments on have been created by people most of whom are not from Africa. Also, some of the things we have adopted are foreign.

 When I started learning, I got the basics if what it takes to create something. Thus, I got to know that I needed to get a problem and understand it before working on it.

When did the passion of creating start?

In my Senior Six, I started a chess club which turned out to be a big success. It was the first time I turned an idea into a reality.

My interest in creating things was birthed after reading two books in 2015, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes and The Fourth Estate by Emmanuel Kirundi.

The books helped me understand how the world is and I got a different lens on how the world is for an African.

Was medicine the course you wanted to pursue?

Yes, but the process of choosing it was almost unconscious. I love the subjects and what I learnt, but the component I am interested in is not in medical school and I believe that is why I have ended up in the health innovation field.

What challenges have you faced?

Ignorance, especially when we are starting out, we do not know what we are doing. We make mistakes that cost time and money but now things are better.

In medical school, innovation was part-time and most of my time and effort was on good grades. I could not give the projects my best hence I never got the desired results.

Also, as I started out in the innovation space, there was a shortage of talented people to work with.

What have you learnt?

Innovation takes time, but things add up when you work on them for a long time.

It is possible to start out not knowing much but if you want to learn something, you have to throw yourself into the world as early as possible.

How did you feel winning the CUGH-Judy and the Velji-CUGH Young  Leader  awards?

It was incredible because the previous winner were Master’s and PhD holders. Yet, without those qualifications, it felt like I had been doing the right thing with my education.

Advice to those interested in innovation?

You have to start and learn from your predecessors and it is important to understand a problem.