{"id":565029,"date":"2024-10-13T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=565029"},"modified":"2024-10-18T14:31:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T12:31:56","slug":"doctors-apps-decrease-burdensome-cost-of-medtech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/565029-doctors-apps-decrease-burdensome-cost-of-medtech.html","title":{"rendered":"South African doctor building breakthrough apps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A South African doctor hopes to transform the medical field by developing products and services that solve problems typically experienced by remote and underfunded state hospitals and clinics, reports<\/a> Rapport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these projects solves two of the most significant issues facing South Africa’s medical industry \u2014 the lack of job placements for new graduates and understaffed and underfunded state hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Juandre Klopper and two friends, Dr Matt te Water Naud\u00e9 and mathematician Freddie O’Donnell, created Sponsor Medic, a non-profit that pairs hospitals seeking locums with doctors looking for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their non-profit organisation, Sponsor Medic, also crowdfunds the money state hospitals need to pay for locums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this provides the hospitals and clinics with the necessary staff to tend to patients, it also helps doctors who struggle to find work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A R500,000 donation recently received by the NGO placed four doctors in state hospitals in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successful placements have helped at least one hospital reduce waiting times from 17 hours to seven on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to running Sponsor Medic, Klopper also started Cape Med Tech, a business he runs with his friend Darshan Naidoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Med Tech aims to create more affordable medical equipment used to save lives and assist healthcare workers in remote areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such product Klopper is developing, an intubation device inserted into the airway to keep it open, can cost private hospitals up to R40,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopper says Cape Med Tech can sell them for R800. The prototype is currently being approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Med Tech also develops mobile applications to assist medical practitioners and patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these apps, Enable, which provides the same functionality as a hearing aid using a smartphone and earphones, helped the startup win R950,000 at the SAB Smart Disability Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triage Buddy is another app Klopper said he is particularly proud of, which uses an algorithm to help nursing staff reduce errors in initial emergency care triage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He points out that this type of program is common in other countries but requires a computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, it has to function on a smartphone and without relying on a stable power source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopper said he has now turned his full attention to Cape Med Tech after his two brothers, who are also businessmen, convinced him to pursue it full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he currently earns less than when he was an intern but only works as a doctor in the evenings to keep the business running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Juandre Klopper has set out on a mission to decrease the cost of and improve access to medical technology in underserved and remote clinics and hospitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341175,"featured_media":565035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17934,16],"tags":[97328,97330,97327,97329,97326],"class_list":["post-565029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartphones","category-software","tag-cape-med-tech","tag-freddie-odonnell","tag-juandre-klopper","tag-matt-te-water-naude","tag-sponsor-medic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565029"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565950,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565029\/revisions\/565950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}