As the global population keeps rising and economies around the world are challenged by a myriad of internal and external factors, healthcare is one of the spheres that suffer the harshest consequences. People have difficulty accessing medical screening services and getting professional help in time, which leads to higher disease rates, especially when it comes to cardiovascular health.
Alexander Tulko is committed to addressing this major healthcare issue with an innovative service Digital Avicenna. The platform makes disease prevention possible by offering an expert interpretation of the results of cardiological tests and other indicators.
Major Healthcare Challenges for Disease Prevention and Detection
What factors create barriers to accessing preventative care and early disease detection? The answer is different for different countries and regions, reflecting their respective specific issues with the healthcare system.
Developing Countries: Shortage of Medical Professionals and Limited Healthcare Funding
In developing countries such as India, access to healthcare is a significant issue due to the shortage of medical professionals against the background of a large population. For every 10,000 people in India, there may be only about eight doctors. Especially alarming is the urban-rural disproportion of healthcare professionals. For example, the total number of dentists in rural India was just 5088 specialists in 2016, and the situation hasn’t drastically changed since. This shortage leads to long waiting times and a lack of resources to provide preventative care.
The problem is relevant for many African countries as well. In Ghana, the population of 30 million is served by just 23 dermatologists (about 1.1 specialists per 1 million people compared to 65 specialists in Germany).
Insufficient funding is another significant obstacle to providing quality healthcare. Many African countries cannot afford to invest in necessary medical equipment, special medical training, and the cost of drugs is often prohibitively expensive. For instance, Mozambique has 548 doctors to take care of 22 million people, while facing a serious lack of equipment and medical facilities.
Developed Countries: Expensive Medical Services and Long Wait Times
Developed countries also face challenges when it comes to healthcare, disease prevention, and early detection, although for different reasons. In the United States, the cost of screening for various medical conditions can be prohibitively expensive, making it difficult for people to access preventative care. Those without medical insurance are effectively cut off from timely access to medical screening and professional consultations.
In Canada, a country with public healthcare, the lack of private healthcare options leads to another difficulty. Many people experience long wait times for test interpretations and other procedures. Patients may wait for weeks, if not months, to receive critical results that may save their lives. This issue even forces some Canadians to leave the country and seek urgent medical assistance abroad in private clinics.
Digital Avicenna: Agile Solution to Early Detection and Disease Prevention
Digital Avicenna is an innovative company that strives to address the shortage of skilled medical professionals by lending the expertise of its stellar medical team of cardiologists. This model is especially beneficial for regions such as Africa, India, and South America with vulnerable healthcare systems.
The company founder and CEO Alexander Tulko has personally traveled to India and other countries and witnessed the healthcare crisis firsthand:
“Even if people do manage to get necessary tests done, they often struggle to get a timely interpretation of the results due to the shortage of specialists, which puts them at risk of missing the crucial period of early detection. The situation is especially dire when it comes to diagnosing cardiovascular conditions,” explained Alexander.
The company has developed an online platform for primary cardiological screening interpretation. Alexander gathered highly experienced and qualified medical specialists to provide accurate information and advice to service users. The service is accessible to anyone with an internet connection, and the results are delivered directly to the patient, eliminating the need for long wait times and reducing the burden on healthcare professionals. It’s an agile, transparent, and convenient solution.
Digital Avicenna’s platform is also designed to reduce the risk of misdiagnosis. Any patient can get a second opinion from a professional to check their diagnosis and make an informed decision. This is especially beneficial for patients with complex conditions or those seeking affordable alternatives to costly private clinics.
Another significant advantage of Digital Avicenna is the fully remote service. Given the massive disruptive effect of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, it’s an important consideration for patients who may be hesitant to visit a hospital or healthcare facility. With Digital Avicenna, patients can access critical screening and diagnostic services from the comfort of their own home, reducing their risk of exposure to infectious diseases.
Alexander Tulko underlines that the mission of Digital Avicenna is not just a service committed to making medical test interpretation more convenient. “As a brand, we want to make a real contribution to affordable, high-quality healthcare globally. Early disease detection and prevention literally save people’s lives, not to mention providing a better quality of life and longevity.”
That’s why Alexander ensured that Digital Avicenna is a scalable solution suitable for individual patients, private clinics, and even nationwide healthcare services. At the moment, Mr. Tulko is seeking additional funding from private investors and funds to help bring his platform to developing countries in urgent need of better medical screening protocols.
His pilot service run in Burundi, featuring 50 patients with fully paid medical tests and interpretation from Digital Avicenna, has been a major success. More than half of the patients in the test group found the information provided by Digital Avicenna’s team extremely useful, and several patients have caught such conditions as pre-diabetes and heart disease at early treatable stages.
“Attracting as much funding as possible is crucial to be able to initiate B2G contracts that will fundamentally change the way countries like Ghana, Mozambique, India, and others approach accessible healthcare. This is a project that will save lives through early detection and prevention of the most widespread cardiovascular conditions,” comments Alexander.
