Israel Africa | Business Guide | 2020

Fighting COVID- 19 Together During the time of the coronavirus, Israel commits to strengthen its existing relationswithmany African countries, focusing on technical development assistance. Nowadays, African countries need much help in dealing with food delivery, medical care and response, and providing basic needs to vulnerable populations such as refugees and the elderly while maintaining social distancing and high standards of hygiene. Some of the Israeli solutions offer specified solutions: a cloud platform for cardiology and pulmonology; mobile health; a remote examination system for consultingwith a physician; amanual respiratory balloon tech; advanced blood-diagnostics platforms; an emergency ventilation device; and anAI diagnostic systemfor healthcare insurers, providers and patients that helps authorities locate potential COVID- 19 patients. In the time of the global pandemic, Israeli companies are entering African markets intending to strengthen the local ecosystems and meet African challenges with Israeli technology solutions. into consideration and worked upon, alongwith the development of durable biocompatible materials, growth of mobile healthcare application strategies, and cloud integration. TheAfricanmedical devicesmarket is very price sensitive, and opportunities lie at the lower end for devices with lower cost but having features to dominate the segment. The company that will dominate themarket first will have a firm grip on the market due to high costs of switching to other technologies, and lack of broad competition. Robotics and Blood Pressure The vast distances in Africa require the usage of tele-diagnostics and remote healthcare services. Israel's globally known digital health sector includes more than 450 companies that are driving innovations in personalized medicine, health analytics, telemedicine, wearables and sensors, and much more. Pharmaceutical and medical equipment product exports from Israel in 2018 reached USD 7 . 8 billion, but Africa takes only about 1 % of Israeli exports in this sector, so the potential is significant. Among the most relevant Israeli innovations are wearable tech: for example, wearable monitors that continuously update the clinic about a patient's vital signs (blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, cardiac output, sweat, sleep, and more). Another Israeli innovation manages the interaction with remote point-of- care locations –replicating a face-to- face visit by a clinician and including a hand-held modular examination tool for examining the heart, lungs, throat, ears and body temperature – all from afar. There are seven main sub-sectors in the Digital Health space - Clinical Workflow; DecisionSupporting; Digital Therapeutics; Remote Monitoring; Assistive Devices; Diagnostic and Patient Engagement. Another need of the Africanmarket is training for doctors and surgeons. In this niche, Israeli companies can offer a range of virtual reality training and robotics-led surgeries, with products that are used by leading hospitals and medical institutions around the globe. 41