The most substantial part of the healthcare budget in the US goes to treating cardio vascular disease (CVD). In Africa, CVD is a major killer, but it is largely ignored in terms of health priorities, according to Dr Ernest Madu, who runs the Heart Institute of the Caribbean, and who spoke at the TED Conference in Tanzania in June last year. 85% of the world’s CVD cases occur in developing countries, and it is particularly prevalent in Africa.
Dr Madu argues that his experience with the Heart Institute of the Caribbean shows that high quality healthcare equivalent to the best in the world can be done in a developing country environment. The Institute has 25 physicians, all of whom are trained and certified in the US, Canada or Britain. The same things which can be done in the US can be done at the Institute for 10% of the cost. No-one is turned away because of inability to pay. Prices are kept down by careful selection of equipment, and on-site manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals.
Education and technology are the solutions to development. Internationally networked computers enable essentially immediate access to expertise anywhere in the world. Electronic healthcare records drive costs down. Dr Madu is currently planning to create the West African Heart Institute in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and to start similar institutes in other parts of Africa: “I am going; those of you who want to come, I welcome you to come along with me.”