Africa-Press. In a new effort to improve access to healthcare, Rwanda has begun testing a medical application based on artificial intelligence, as part of a large-scale pilot project aimed at addressing the acute shortage of healthcare workers and medical infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.
The project, known as “Horizon 1000”, is the result of a collaboration between the Gates Foundation and US-based company OpenAI, in partnership with Rwandan authorities. The two organisations have invested around $50 million to develop and field-test the system.
The application is designed to support healthcare workers by enhancing clinical decision-making rather than replacing human staff, according to Andrew Muhire, a senior official at Rwanda’s Ministry of Health.
It is currently being rolled out in fifty clinics across the country for a two-year trial period, with the aim of assessing its effectiveness and its ability to provide diagnostic support that helps speed up patients’ access to care.
Rwanda faces a severe shortage of doctors, with a ratio of no more than one doctor per 1,000 patients, compared with the World Health Organization’s recommendation of four doctors per 1,000 people.
Despite the high expectations surrounding the initiative, it faces a key challenge: the application was developed in English, a language not widely spoken by the population. Around 75% of Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda as their primary language. Authorities are currently assessing healthcare workers’ ability to use the application effectively despite this linguistic barrier.
If the trial proves successful, the project could mark a pivotal step towards deploying the application in 1,000 health centres across Africa, in an effort to improve healthcare quality in countries facing staff shortages and infrastructure challenges.
