Making Medical Technology Work in Underserved Communities

Images: NMR in Biomedicine

Promising medical innovations can fail to move beyond the prototype anywhere in the world, but the problem is amplified in settings with scarce resources. It’s not always clear what makes innovation useful, adoptable and scalable in communities that are underserved.

In this Engineering for Change webinar, Christopher Adlung considers the question, ‘Are we building what people and health systems actually need?’

Christopher is a Researcher in Telemedicine and Frugal Innovation at Delft University of Technology in conversation with Winnie Wangari Kibiru, the MedTech Lead at Villgro Africa. They discuss how engineers, researchers and companies can take a systems perspective, design for adoption from the beginning, and focus on solving real problems rather than simply developing new products.

Highlights include lessons learned from frugal approaches to advanced medical technology, telemedicine kiosks and other ways of bringing care closer to underserved communities.

For deeper context, please see these three papers in open source publications that Christopher has co-written:

Video Highlights

What does frugal innovation look like in practice?

Christopher explains how affordable, accessible telemedicine can make use of existing resources, and how a Kenyan service combines healthcare, quick microloans, and medicine delivery to overcome barriers to care. Watch to see why building trust and connecting services are key to making the model work.

What design choices can help medical technology reach more people?

In this video Christopher explores Bangladesh’s Shukhee telemedicine network, showing how building on existing telecom infrastructure and placing care in accessible kiosks can expand access. Watch to learn what may still hold similar models back, and why policy, healthcare, business, and research need to work together.

How can frugal healthcare meet communities where they are?

Here Christopher discusses a Nigerian hospital’s focus on prevention and holistic care, and how bringing services into familiar community spaces could make care more accessible and scalable. Watch to hear how affordability, local priorities, and community reach shape a genuinely frugal innovation.

What helps frugal innovation succeed and scale?

Christopher explains why connecting sectors such as healthcare, banking, agriculture and mobility can turn simple, locally grounded ideas into lasting solutions. This is why frugal doesn’t mean lower quality, and how the right partnerships can transform care.

Presenter

Christopher Adlung is a Researcher in Telemedicine and Frugal Innovation at Delft University of Technology in the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. He is also the Founder & CEO  of TAIRIS Medical B.V., based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Moderator

Winnie Wangari Kibiru is the MedTech Lead at Villgro Africa, where she heads the organization’s MedTech strategy, innovation portfolio, ecosystem partnerships, and technical advisory services, supporting entrepreneurs from concept development through commercialization and investment readiness.

She has a career in health innovation and the MedTech ecosystem guiding their development across Africa. She is a mechanical engineer by training and an ISO 13485-certified quality systems professional with experience in medical device development, regulatory strategy, clinical readiness, quality management systems, technology transfer, manufacturing readiness, and commercialization. She also leads the Transforming Africa MedTech Conference (TAMC), one of Africa’s leading platforms for advancing medical technology innovation, bringing together policymakers, innovators, investors, manufacturers, clinicians, and ecosystem partners to strengthen Africa’s health innovation landscape.

Beyond MedTech, Winnie has supported a broad portfolio of healthcare startups through accelerator and innovation programs such as Africa Impact Challenge, HTHA, AI4H, Johnson & Johnson, i3, Product Development Partners (PDP), GIZ FAIR Forward, and regional health innovation initiatives. She has worked with governments, universities, development partners, investors, manufacturers, regulators, and innovation hubs across Africa to strengthen healthcare innovation ecosystems and accelerate the translation of research into scalable health solutions.

Photo: A woman blows into the spirometer at a Mashavu camp at the Children and Youth Empowerment Center in Nyeri, Kenya, courtesy of Khanjan Mehta