Africa's AI Health Revolution - HIMSS26 Europe Insights with Valentine Kamau

Claire Murigande 0:03

Hello, dear listeners. Welcome back to Narratives of Purpose, the podcast amplifying social impact with me, Claire Murigande. I bring you conversations with global changemakers who are contributing to make a positive impact in society, with a special focus on healthcare innovation. This is episode number five of our HIMSS Europe 2026 special series.

After last year's event in Paris, I am back at the HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management System Society European Conference. This time in Copenhagen, gathering unique insights from some of the conference speakers. My guest today is Valentine Kamau, a health ecosystem builder based in Kenya, who created and hosts the AI HealthBeatAfrica podcast. Valentine talks about her mission to amplify the voices of African health tech innovators. She shares the biggest challenges facing African health tech startups and reflects on the global push for patient-centered preventive healthcare.

Enjoy the conversation, share the episode with someone in your network, and remember that you can leave a comment on the Narratives of Purpose website using the short link bit.ly/narratives of Purpose. Then select the review page. Valentine Kamau, welcome to Narrative of Purpose. How are you doing?

Valentine Kamau 1:25

Thank you so much, Claire. I'm doing well. It's been a very thought provocative HIMSS 2026. So I just came from a panel where we were talking about global perspectives of AI and how is AI being implemented across different continents? It was very interesting to hear from Singapore, India, Switzerland, the UK, and of course, I brought in the African perspective. So very exciting. Even the other sessions have also been equally exciting.

So yeah, I'm really enjoying myself.

Claire Murigande 2:00

Excellent. Yeah. And so before we talk about your podcast, because you're also a podcaster,

Valentine Kamau 2:05

Yes.

Claire Murigande 2:05

And I wanted to have your perspective that you could share with our listeners about AI and healthcare in Africa. Tell us about yourself. What is your background, and actually, what led you to create AI Health Beat Africa?

Valentine Kamau 2:18

Yeah, thanks for that. So my background is in health for about the last 10 years. So my education, I did the health sciences, health life sciences, both for my undergrad and for my masters. That's biochemistry and nutrition, and hence from there, I've always worked with organizations within the health sector. So I worked with consulting firms. I've actually also been in a lab doing research on nutrition profiles of different seeds. So from there, I just felt that I should still be in the health sector, but I was done with what I had done before. Yeah, so I was just thinking, what do I do with all this knowledge I have with the people I know?

And then I just narrowed down so many ideas that I had, and then I ended up with a podcast. I was like, I got my aha moment, yeah, and I was like, I think I can do this. So after, of course, procrastinating for about three months, I just said, you know what, the worst that can happen is that I will get 10 views from my family and friends. But I just started it.

It was a leap of faith, just taking that bold step, being courageous, and just seeing where this goes. So it's been a good journey since September 2025 to now in May 2026, so it's going well.

And what I really love is bringing you know the health tech innovators that I talk to. Each of them has a very different story, and it's always about passion why they started building what they are building. So there was a gap of where the African innovators didn't have a voice. There's always the big tech stories of what they're doing. But then, if you're building in Africa, you're a startup, you're trying to scale. There's really no platform until you get to be a bigger big boy, so to speak. Yeah.

So my focus is just to give them a platform to talk about. As long as they are making a difference, they are the right guests for the show. So that aspect of giving people space to talk about what they are building for health, just to improve the livelihoods of Africa. Yeah.

Claire Murigande 4:31

Actually, it's very similar to narratives of purpose because that's what I also do on the podcast. Basically, building a platform so that people have the chance to share what they're doing and share their personal journeys because I realize that you know when you listen to a story and you listen to the founder themselves talking about what they went through and how they built something, it's very relatable. Yeah, you know, it's very similar. So it's good that we connected and we met here.

Valentine Kamau 4:54

Yeah, yeah.

Claire Murigande 4:54

So I've had also a few innovators and pioneers from Africa on the show. But obviously, I'm happy that a show like yours also exists because there are so many people out there doing things. So, what has been for you so far the most impressive solution that you've come across?

Valentine Kamau 5:10

Ooh, that's a hard one because

Claire Murigande 5:13

to choose one is difficult I know. Let me rephrase this. What has been like maybe the most unexpected? You didn't realize that tech could also be a solution to solve this issue.

Valentine Kamau 5:23

I think that would be there's an innovator who's building autism screening tool, so specific for Africa because talking about the context, yeah, it's quite different. So that was quite unexpected. I read about them, and then I saw they had been featured in a couple of places, other platforms. I got to reading. I was like, I had never heard of anything like that.

There's what we know about autism diagnosis. So they have that tool where they have collected the datasets from you know from Kenya, and now the tool is actually built on those datasets, so it's actually quite context relevant. And then, apart from that, they also have a physiotherapy center where now these children actually go to have the different types of therapy that they need.

So that was quite unexpected because the usual is tools for diagnostics. There is that the chatbot, you know, that those are really coming up. Yeah. But this was quite, yeah, it stood out.

Claire Murigande 6:25

And so far, have you featured only founders based in Kenya, or you're expanding it a bit outside, even like East Africa, even further?

Valentine Kamau 6:35

So the goal is for it to actually be very pan-African. And so far, I've featured two founders who are based in Germany, but they are building for Africa. Yeah, so the interviews are also online, but a big chunk is usually in person with the ones in Nairobi. But the goal is to have it even Pan African because there's a lot going on on the continent.

Claire Murigande 6:58

Speaking about that,

Valentine Kamau 6:59

Yeah.

Claire Murigande 6:59

What do you see moving very fast at the moment? Talking about AI or tech within the healthcare context in Africa.

Valentine Kamau 7:06

In what aspects?

Claire Murigande 7:07

Where do you see health tech being applied on the continent?

Valentine Kamau 7:12

Yeah, I think there's really a lot going on in terms of the diagnostic space. There's the screening for cervical cancer. I think that's a really good one. There's some good tools out there, and then of course there is the aspect of also radiology. There, there's a huge shortage of radiologists. There is the pathology, so I think those are really good use cases that solve a very urgent need that that's there.

Claire Murigande 7:41

Okay.

Valentine Kamau 7:41

Yeah.

Claire Murigande 7:41

And when you speak to to these founders, what is the their main barriers?

I think since the pandemic, it's really easy now to do telehealth. Before was difficult, right? So there was a barrier there.

Valentine Kamau 7:52

Yeah.

Claire Murigande 7:52

Do you see that there's something that comes across on a regular basis that they have they face the same barriers, or it depends on the solution that they're developing,

Valentine Kamau 8:01

I think the the barriers cut across actually because one of them is funding. Yeah, they are startup innovators, so most of them go through the incubation process. They had an idea, go through a pilot. Hopefully, they will scale. So the funding you might get funds for your pilot to, you know, do their pilot, but then after that you don't have funds to deploy. So funding is quite a problem and cuts across.

The other thing is a partnerships. So building a partnership. So for each innovator, actually one of the innovators told me in startup lingo, there is something called that for a founder, your product is your baby. Yeah, you are really focused on the product and what it can do. But for a second time founder, you're focusing more on the market. What's your go to market strategy? Yeah. So then, who is going to help you go to market? Yeah, you probably need a very good accelerator program to help you that has a portfolio approach. So it's looking at you from the start to the end. They can bring you to perhaps have some hackathon where investors are there. Then you have continuity beyond the skill.

So there is the problem of the funding, the partnerships, and I would say the regulations that are in place. There are a lot of steps, you know, a lot of things that you need to do. So I think the solution to that is to build with those regulation mechanisms in place from the time you're designing. Know what is needed far ahead of you, so that you're not curtailed by a certain regulator that you didn't adhere to their instructions.

Claire Murigande 9:50

Okay.

Valentine Kamau 9:51

Yeah.

Claire Murigande 9:51

Okay. And talking about regulation, I know here in Europe, and especially at this event, we're talking a lot about the EU AI Act. There's the EHDS, it stands for European Health Data Space. What does that landscape look like across the continent?

So in Africa, there increasingly, let's say from 2024 to now, most countries are coming up with AI strategies. So far, it's 17 African countries. So the AI strategies come in to bring in the structure. It's like when you're building a house, the architecture you need a foundation. So the strategies are coming in with regulations. So bringing in everything together, pulling it together, so that then you're also not running around, not knowing what to do.

So the AI strategies, I believe, are a good a good way forward and giving direction that when you're building this is what to do and their expectations and the good thing is that apart from health they are also giving direction in other sectors and even in health you end up also working in a multi sectoral approach so education agriculture so they're really good guiding principles.

What is your your expectations coming to this congress? If you have any, you are part of a panel.

Yeah,

You were with people from, as you were saying before, from different continents.

Yeah.

So what did you expect coming into this conference, and particularly for your panel?

So my expectation has already been met because one of the goals coming here was just to see what else is going on outside Africa. Yeah, for that global perspective. So it's interesting that everyone here, even if they are building for different contexts, they are all focused on the patient. How do we improve the patient life in terms of quality of life and even in terms of preventive, yeah, a preventive aspect and not a reactive aspect? So I think that goal has been met. I've met a lot of people who are building, and even with the goal of expanding into Africa, those are conversations that will definitely keep on going, and and also now for the panel, there were very interesting perspectives to hear from. You know, even from Singapore, Switzerland, UK, India. So it's very interesting to hear that we are all focused on one goal. And as I was saying on the panel, it's all about working together. Yeah, yeah, partnerships and just building together. Let's not have this aspect of global north, global south, which is there, but let it not be a hindrance to how we are building. We are building for the human race. We are solving our health system challenges. So let's always aim to work together, just collaboration.

That's, at least for me, that's the message I took from your your participation in the panel. Your closing words was about, you know, healthcare for all basically. You know, and and tech is gonna be a good enabler for that.

Yeah, it's an enabler for sure.

As long as we work together.

Yeah, as long as we work together. Yeah.

Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining me.

And you've been doing this for quite a while. Congratulations!

Thank you.

So keep doing it, and it was really lovely to meet you. We'll definitely keep the connection going.

Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. We’ll stay in touch. Yeah.

Asante.

Karibu sana.

Learn more about how artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare systems across the continent as Valentine spotlights the people, the innovative tools, and the ideas solving real problems in African healthcare systems on her platform, the AI HealthBeat Africa. You'll find all of Valentine's conversations with innovators, with health system professionals, researchers, and policy leaders at AIHealthDialoguesAfrica.Substack.com. The link is in the show notes.

Thanks a lot for tuning in today. Join me again next week for the last episode of our HIMSS 26 series featuring Safia Agueni, co-founder and COO of HealthSeed Venture Studio. Until then, take care of yourselves, stay well, and stay inspired.