{
  "id": 12182167,
  "title": "Innovators urged to build low-cost, locally maintainable health solutions",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/innovators-urged-to-build-low-cost-locally-maintainable-health",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-05T15:20:22.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
    "slug": "myjoyonline-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/innovators-urged-to-build-low-cost-locally-maintainable-health-solutions/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Ghana Medical Innovation Expo 2026 concluded with a plea from Ghanaian innovators to create affordable medical equipment in collaboration with health professionals, ensuring that devices address local requirements and can be maintained by local engineers. Dr Lawrence Ofori Boadu, Director of the Institutional Care Division at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), made this call during the expo, which focused on \"Beyond the No-Bed Syndrome\". Organized by Academic City University in partnership with Northeastern University, USA and the 4GBI, the three-day event gathered policymakers, health practitioners, researchers, engineers, and innovators.\n\nDr Boadu highlighted that the GHS was implementing an integrated bed management and referral coordination system to equip ambulance crews with real-time information about available beds and facility capacities. Despite Ghana having one hospital bed per 1,000 people, well below the World Health Organisation's recommended five, Dr Boadu emphasized that merely increasing the number of beds would not resolve the issue. He cited a tragic case of a 29-year-old engineer who died after being transferred between hospitals due to inadequate stabilization and poor coordination among health facilities.\n\nTo address this, the GHS has directed health facilities to stabilize emergency patients instead of turning them away and trained thousands of health workers in basic life support. Bed tracking software has been piloted at several hospitals, and bed management bureaus have been established in 10 regions. Dr Boadu stressed that the challenge goes beyond physical beds, stating that it involves skills and equipment for patient management. The GHS is also working to establish a National Teleconsultation Centre to provide expert advice to lower-level facilities and reduce unnecessary referrals to major hospitals. Additionally, some imported equipment proves challenging to maintain due to the lack of local technical capabilities.\n\nDr Ibrahim Badejo, Senior Research and Development Director of External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, urged innovators to focus on unmet clinical needs and develop solutions that improve clinical outcomes, affordability, and accessibility. He emphasized that the impact of innovation should be measured by its effect on patients and communities. Dr Badejo encouraged innovators to identify these needs, assemble multidisciplinary teams, validate their ideas early, and collaborate with hospitals, industry, and government to scale successful solutions. The event's Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Dr Sena Agbodjah, noted that the BioInnovation Centre, established through a partnership between Academic City, Northeastern University, and Ghana BioInnovation, aims to develop medical innovations to enhance healthcare delivery. The expo, themed \"Beyond the No-Bed Syndrome,\" drew over 200 participants and aimed to identify gaps in innovation to guide future progress.",
  "summary": "The Ghana Medical Innovation Expo 2026 has ended with a call for Ghanaian innovators to design low-cost medical equipment together with health workers, from the drawing board, so that devices meet local needs and can be maintained by local engineers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}