Canberra company launches flying doctor service in west Africa

Canberra-based company Aspen Medical will launch a commercial flying doctor service in West Africa next month as it plans for a future beyond Ebola treatment.
The company, which was the only organisation to be contracted by three separate governments to treat the epidemic, is hopeful it will support rebuilding communities.
Its plane is expected to arrive in Sierra Leone’s capital Monrovia in coming weeks and the evacuation service will be available to calls from Liberia, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
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AfroCentric, FICO partner to offer payment integrity platform to reduce healthcare fraud in South Africa

The AfroCentric Health Group (AfroCentric) and global analytics software firm FICO today announced a strategic partnership that establishes the South African healthcare industry’s leading fraud management solution. AfroCentric’s healthcare IT services subsidiary, Helios IT Solutions (Helios ITS), and FICO now offer this fraud management and payment integrity platform to all medical schemes in South Africa.
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HST lands ground-breaking Tanzanian contract

Health Systems Technologies (Pty) Ltd (HST), a subsidiary of African Equity Empowerment Investments Limited (AEEI), has secured a contract with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health to implement Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).
HST, a leading provider of integrated healthcare solutions in South Africa, will roll out its LIMS services to multiple laboratories in Tanzania with a view to rolling out further opportunities throughout Tanzania.
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Innovative respiratory inhaler for Obstructive Airway Diseases

Cipla has announced that it is currently developing an innovative inhaler, which will bring important benefits for South African patients and physicians, as the inhaler holds three key benefits for the treatment of Obstructive Airway Diseases (OAD).
This novel, breath-actuated inhaler (BAI), called Synchrobreathe is expected to reach the local market in fourth quarter 2015, and will be launched first in South Africa.
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M-Shwari clients to get mobile medical consultation services

The Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) has partnered with an international mobile-health provider to offer its more than 11 million M-Shwari customers medical consultation services on their phones.
Under the partnership the m-Health service provider Hello Doctor, a subsidiary of Metropolitan Health, will act as an assistant to local general practitioners when consumers want a quick healthcare reference.
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Medical Aid Scheme Reserves in the Spotlight

With medical aid schemes in SA holding surplus reserve funds of up to R27bn, Alexander Forbes has questioned the way medical scheme reserving is calculated.
With medical aid schemes in South Africa holding surplus reserve funds of between R12-billion and R27-billion, Alexander Forbes Health has questioned the way medical scheme reserving is calculated. Alexander Forbes Head of Technical and Actuarial Consulting Solutions, Roshan Bhana, discusses a new possible formula for schemes developed by the Industry Technical Advisory Panel (ITAP) of the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), as well as an Alexander Forbes Health measure to work out what reserves are required.
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