PIC CAPTION: Christian Dutauziet is the founder and CEO of HopMed, a telemedicine and digital health platform that helps people to safely and efficiently access health information and healthcare professionals in real time, through its website and app available on Apple Store and Google Play Store. Image: Supplied / HopMed
It’s hard to imagine a world without the ease of pressing a button and immediately video conferencing with someone on the other side of the world within seconds, especially in the healthcare profession. Telemedicine saves both doctors and healthcare consumers time and costs on travel, accommodation and getting second opinions before making major life decisions.
The ease of technology and access, even in remote, hard to reach places is precisely what makes telemedicine such an attractive, even in some instances, lucrative industry. However, for the average consumer and for healthcare practitioners hard-pressed for time and money, it is an essential service that should be made accessible to more people.
Making lifesaving healthcare more accessible to people through telemedicine is what drives HopMed founder and CEO Christian Dutauziet everyday to make a tangible difference for better in people’s lives every day. He chats to AfricArena’s Jabulile Sonya Ngwenya about his startup story and his hopes, dreams and aspiration for the future of telemedicine on the African continent.
The rapidly growing global telemedicine market, currently worth an estimated $17 billion, is still growing, with room to spare. Thanks to the exponential growth in virtual conferencing and how telemedicine is neatly positioned at the intersection of healthcare and information and communication technologies; this niche market is expected to reach a market value of $57 billion by 2024.
“After working for over ten years in the life science and research industry, I felt a need to contribute to the healthcare system in both Côte d’Ivoire and the African continent at large,” Dutauziet tells AfricArena. A biologist turned entrepreneur, he says, “I am passionate about contributing toward a healthier, cleaner Africa.”
Growing up in Côte d’Ivoire made Dutauziet painfully aware of many different challenges people on the African continent face, experience and endure. However, one day a visit to a rural area forever changed his perspective on healthcare efficiency and challenged him to find a solution to the problem he saw.
“During a visit to a rural area in Côte d’Ivoire. I witnessed firsthand the challenges people faced in accessing healthcare: Long distances to the nearest health facilities and a shortage of medical professionals. Plus a huge lack of health education that was filled with stigma associated with some conditions,” Dutauziet says. “This situation highlighted the significant gap in healthcare accessibility and the urgent need for a solution that could bridge this gap.”
This experience marked a watershed moment for Dutauziet, who recognized there was a need within the market for his solution. He also recognized the opportunity to do something about it and harness technology to make quality healthcare more accessible to those who battled the most to access it and play a role in changing the healthcare landscape in Africa and the world.
And so, he set about setting up, starting up and creating his solution, HopMed, as a solo founder with an exceptionally strong, skilled team. Using his own savings to get the ball rolling, he has to date, injected $50,000 in HopMed, an African-bred and born solution to these unique challenges healthcare consumers experience within the continent. In the midst of the current funding winter climate, Dutauziet shares, “we are still bootstrapping, and despite the challenges, we were able to focus on developing our MVP.”
He shares that HopMed’s current funding from this pool of initial startup capital “was allocated to developing and enhancing our technology infrastructure and to our marketing and community engagement efforts and in a few weeks, we will launch our Piéton Milliardaire” initiative, to encourage healthier lifestyles and promote the benefits of our platform. Funds were allocated to improving our app’s user interface, integrating advanced health monitoring features, and ensuring robust data security measures. We also invested in developing our AI-powered virtual health assistant, Aya, which provides personalized health advice and connects users with healthcare professionals.”
His risky venture has paid off as HopMed is an interactive web-based digital platform that enables both healthcare professionals and consumers to access health information and communicate with one another in real time. Furthermore, he showcased his innovative solution to investors at this year’s AfricArena Abidjan Fintech, Energy, Mobility and Logistics Summit in Côte d’Ivoire, which provided his startup with excellent exposure. Dutauziet shares that HopMed is looking at raising their first pre-seed round soon and aiming at raising $300,000. These funds, he says, “will be pivotal in accelerating our growth and further enhancing our platform to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the population in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond. The funds will help us with technology development and enhancement, marketing and community engagement, strategic partnerships and lastly, team expansion and training.”
Running a startup during the 2020 covid pandemic was challenging, yet insightful. “One of our services at that time was to provide home testing for passengers, and this would help deliver a certificate without them having to do the long queue at the identified centers in town. We noticed how convenient it was for them to digitalize this process and simplify it.” This insight catalyzed HopMed into the digital platform it is today.
Dutauziet says that their most recent business achievement was that “HopMed entered the testing phases before the official release in a few weeks from the launch date and at the same time we were able to acquire ten more partners that help us provide comprehensive services. We were also involved in key programs like AfricArena, Total Energies StartUp challenge, Young African Catalyst and so on.”
“With the rise in non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and hypertension which are escalating public health emergencies in Côte d'Ivoire, healthcare practitioners are able to seamlessly raise awareness about these conditions through HopMed,” Dutauziet says.
“These chronic conditions are driven by lifestyle factors such as poor diet, physical inactivity, and inadequate healthcare access. HopMed offers a comprehensive solution tailored to address these challenges and improve health outcomes across the nation. Our solution motivates for healthier lifestyle and bridges the gap between healthcare professionals and the population by providing a broad range of health services, local languages support and interoperability for better care management.”
“Our goal is to promote access to teleconsultation for all practitioners and patients by offering an easy-to-use consultation solution without any equipment to install,” he adds.
You can’t be an entrepreneur without at least an ounce of passion for what you do and Dutauziet agrees that passion helps you to steer your startup through all kinds of situations and challenging times, and helps keep a team focused on the mission at hand. “At HopMed, our mission goes beyond just providing healthcare services; it’s about empowering individuals to take charge of their health and wellbeing. I’m driven by the potential to use technology to overcome barriers to healthcare access and to create innovative solutions that can transform lives,” he says.
Dutauziet starts his day early with a brief meditation or exercise session and afterwards, he reviews his daily schedule and prioritizes his tasks for the day ahead to ensure he stays sharp, focused and clear on the most critical activities.
He shares how “in a day filled with meeting potential partners, investors or stakeholders to explore collaboration opportunities and attending networking events to stay connected with the broader entrepreneurial and healthcare community; seeing the positive changes we bring to people’s lives, from better health outcomes to increased health literacy, fuels my passion and commitment to this work.”
At the end of a working day, family quality time, he says, is non-negotiable as this time “helps unwind and recharge for the next day.”
Working in the digital health industry is not without its unique challenges, says Dutauziet, listing access to funding and technological infrastructure as the two most important challenges founders and their teams must navigate within this industry.
“Securing sufficient funding to develop and scale our platform is one of the biggest challenges. Early-stage funding, particularly in the French speaking West African health tech sector, can be hard to come by,” he says. HopMed overcomes these challenges by participating in startup competitions, pitch events and networking opportunities for sharing their vision with potential investors and forming strategic alliances with organizations that in addition to funding, have the potential to provide mentorship and resources.
On the technological side, he says after HopMed launched its first prototype in July 2023 on both the Apple Store app and Google Play Store, “we received various feedback that led us to focus on a redesign and a more patient centric approach. We allocated a significant portion of our funds to build and enhance our tech infrastructure, ensuring that it is secure, user-friendly, and scalable. We integrated solutions like USSD technology for users without smartphones and ensured that our app could function offline with data synchronization when network access is restored and we started collaborations with technology providers for internet connectivity in rural areas.”
Founding a startup in the digital health industry can be risky, but “Don’t be scared to fall!” Dutauziet says, sharing wisdom a mentor shared with him. “This simple yet profound advice has been a guiding principle throughout my entrepreneurial journey with HopMed. Moreover, this simple approach helps us build our resilience whenever we faced hard challenges, such as user-centred design, and continuoulsy improving as we integrate feedback, adapt, monitor the effectiveness of our solutions, stay updated on the latest health technology advancements and remain flexible to pivot or improve our offerings as needed.”
Dutauziet advises interested digital health founders to invest in “understanding the local context of the target population’s health and local engagement; stay resilient and adaptable, ready to pivot when necessary; and focus on your long-term vision that enables you to stay true to your mission and plan for scalability from the outset.”
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