We do what we do because we believe that every person in that community deserves access to tools which enable them to lead healthier lives.
communities in developing countries could have better healthcare through data-driven decisions. Adam Thompson and Evelyn Castle started eHealth Africa (eHA) with this belief. They saw the need for change after working in Africa and experiencing the challenges firsthand.
Our first project in Kaduna, Nigeria, transformed a Family Health Center. We helped the Health Center shift from paper to electronic records, tracking a thousand children's vaccinations. This change wasn’t just about records; it improved how the clinic worked, making finances clearer and preventing misuse of funds.
With over 300 staff across three country offices and project presence across multiple states/countries in Africa, we continue to build and implement data driven solutions that ensure communities lead healthier lives.
Co-founders and Executive Directors Adam Thompson and Evelyn Castle shared a belief in this simple idea from conducting research at the University of California in Santa Cruz. Following on the ground experience in Africa, they also knew that better decision making could counter the many challenges such as the lack of infrastructure in low resource settings.
eHealth Africa’s first project, supported by Population Council, involved helping a Family Health Center in Kaduna, Nigeria move from paper to an electronic medical record system wherein staff were able to input one thousand children’s vaccination records and track and share their progress through monthly reports. From a clinic management perspective, the reports also allowed for better financial oversight and visibility into the misuse of procurement funds.
From modest beginnings in 2009, eHealth Africa has expanded its reach with offices in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Germany and the United States. We work across West Africa and currently execute projects in many countries, including Chad, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, and others.
Our over 500 full-time staff operate across our focus areas and have supported our tremendous growth to date. Our teams have the tenacity to lead challenging health systems work in low-resource environments. If it seems impossible, ask us!
We currently work in partnership with a variety of diverse funders, institutions and collaborators including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Nigerian Emergency Operations Center. Our team manages the country-wide Ebola response projects for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Ebola-affected African hot zone, and boasts one of the largest Geographic Information Systems (GIS) teams in West Africa.
During the next ten years, we want to continue to strengthen health systems in Africa through the use of data, logistics and technical solutions. Here's our plan for the decade of action.
through the design and implementation of data-driven solutions that respond to local needs and provide underserved communities with tools to lead healthier lives.
We push ourselves to maintain high standards ensuring that we produce the most meaningful results in everything we do, no matter how big or small.
We maintain a worldview driven by possibilities, not limitations. We take smart risks and foster an environment where creativity and innovation thrive.
We are honest and truthful in our work. We always do what is right, even when it is not easy. We put our values into practice and hold each other accountable.
Our experience working as an implementer and a leader across health systems delivery, emergency response, and supply chain management tells us that without a unified approach to strengthening the health systems overall, programs are destined to be ineffective, costly, and slow.
We will use the strategic model to encourage integration across programs and provide value, responsiveness, and scale in our work. Further, we will maintain quality and impact, in part, by vetting our participation in projects using the following rules:
Our successes – from surveillance of remote regions in Nigeria for children in need of immunization to completing an Ebola vaccine trial – share a common philosophical approach - a virtuous cycle: it is repeatable and each stage informs the next.
Data we gather and analyze with our health informatics team, partner data, or that we identify in the context of a given issue or project.
Our local knowledge and relationships, from our employees on the ground to our connections and partnerships with local and country-level governments, and the analysis produced from gathering and reviewing data.
Providing value, responsiveness, and scale - made possible by regular intervals of considering data and insight together.
In late 2012, eHealth Africa partnered with the Nigerian government and others to operationalize a novel strategy of using satellite imagery and mobile phones to better assess where communities were being missed during polio immunization campaigns.
Using a combination of satellite imagery and field data collectors, eHealth Africa worked with government partners to build a basemap of the entire north of Nigeria. Our geographic information systems team extracted features from the imagery, and our field staff traversed the country to collect geotagged settlement names and points of interest that could help vaccinators better find their way. We then gave GPS-enabled smartphones to vaccination teams during immunization campaigns, matching up the tracks they created with the basemap to get an accurate assessment of vaccine coverage.
On June 19, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that wild poliovirus was no longer endemic in Nigeria, and the work in polio vaccination tracking was instrumental in achieving this.
We will develop an operating plan to help us stay focused on the important tasks.
Through more deliberate focus on employee development, we will focus on building and keeping an outstanding Africa-based team to execute our work.
We will manage our growth in ways that enable us to maintain our reputation as a quick, willing, and effective partner.
We recognize that maintaining the strength of this virtuous cycle requires us to continuously cultivate core competencies in the organization. These competencies include, for example:
Maintaining and strengthening these competencies is a key organizational priority for the coming years.
We are eHealth Africa. Our organization is supported and strengthened by an expert team who provide effective management and leadership.
Learn About UsSince 2009, we have been collaborating closely with a strong network of organizations, institutions, and foundations across both the public and the private sector to strengthen health systems, particularly across West Africa.
Your donation helps us to continue to use the power of technology to make an impact in health systems and provide underserved communities with the tools they need to lead healthier lives.
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