What is the name of your organization?
Elevation REH Africa (Pty) Ltd
What is the name of your solution?
REHI
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Harnessing nature’s energy to power healthcare infrastructure in Africa and transition to environmentally safe medical waste.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Johannesburg, South Africa
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
South Africa
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
Over a billion people globally, rely on healthcare facilities that don’t have access to adequate electricity supply which undermines the delivery of basic life-saving interventions. A significant percentage of this population is represented across Africa. Studies show that the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of hospitals and other inpatient healthcare facilities is nearly three times those of typical commercial buildings, hence healthcare establishments can achieve significant savings by adopting more efficient systems. Such savings may be utilized to improve patient care. Furthermore, poor management of medical waste has resulted in increased costs and carbon emissions associated with high volume logistics and incineration models for waste treatment. Elevation REH Africa seeks to improve healthcare outcomes through engineering design, supply and construction of renewable energy solar solutions, providing managed logistics cold chain integrity monitoring, and transforming medical waste processes into environmentally friendly alternatives for healthcare institutes across South Africa and scaling to other neighbouring countries across the African continent.
What is your solution?
REHI stands for Renewable Energy Healthcare Infrastructure in three categories i.e. Power, Cold-Chain and Healthcare Risk Waste (HCRW) for health institutes such as Hospitals, Specialist Medical Centres, Clinics and Mobile Clinics.
1. Power: Engineering: Full solar PV and energy storage feasibility study with energy economics for investment analysis.
Procurement: Supply of all tier-1 solar equipment and bill of material for the designed solution. Construction: Complete turnkey installation, commissioning, training with ongoing maintenance. Finance: Offering finance for end-users in partnership with Standard Bank of South Africa.
2. Cold-Chain: Managed Logistics Services (MLS) via our control centre using Real-Time Temperature and Humidity Devices, called Motes. Motes use LoRa Technology, with GSM applications for location and real-time alerts to ensure cold-chain integrity is maintained for patient samples during transit from collection points to the medical laboratory for accurate testing. Elevation REH is in partnership with Figorr, the OEM for the Mote devices.
3. HCRW for medical institutes: Supply, Install and Maintain Integrated Sterilizer and Shredder (ISS) technology. Elevation REH is the South African distributor for Celitron, a Hungary-based manufacturer of medical waste disposal solutions. The ISS treats the HCRW and renders it non-infectious and environmentally safe whilst reducing the waste weight by >70%.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
We seek to improve healthcare provision to the population in South Africa with REHI and scale across African countries targeting positive impact on all patients, but specifically in low-income communities in the public space. South Africa has a population in excess of 63 Million. An estimated 50% of the healthcare budget serves >86% of the countries' population which represents the public sector for healthcare. A significant % of the healthcare infrastructure in the public space suffers from poor power supply, which compromises patient care and disrupts essential healthcare services. This includes compromised medical equipment, compromised efficacy of medications and vaccines, and potential safety hazards for both patients and healthcare workers. Furthermore, ensuring sample integrity is being maintained during transit means ensuring the cold-chain is being maintained. Inefficient cold-chain will compromise sample integrity which may lead to inaccurate results and inaccurate clinical diagnosis. 70% of all clinical outcomes are determined by the diagnostic test results produced by a medical laboratory, and cold-chain is essential for this service.
The management and disposal of healthcare risk waste (HCRW), which includes infectious, pathological, and hazardous materials generated by healthcare facilities remains a challenge and poses serious environmental, legal, and financial risks to both private and public health institutions.
