Introduction
At the Transforming African MedTech Conference, a landmark session brought together architects, biomedical engineers, clinicians, and healthcare leaders in a rare multidisciplinary dialogue. Led by Wambui Nyabero, CEO MEDevice Africa, the session was titled “Integrated Solutions: How Architecture & MedTech Converge for African Healthcare.” It explored how the built environment and medical technologies must evolve hand in hand if Africa is to achieve safe, efficient, and sustainable healthcare delivery.
The Keynote – Fostering Collaboration
Architect Emery Karenzi opened the session with a powerful keynote that unpacked everyday yet often underestimated challenges in healthcare spaces: limited funds, lack of space, and poor ergonomics. He stressed that efficiency in MedTech cannot be achieved if architecture, engineering, and health planning continue to work in silos. Instead, success lies in cross-disciplinary collaboration, where spatial design is intentionally aligned with technology deployment and clinical needs.
Case Study Dialogue – Lessons from Practice
Under Wambui’s moderation, the session then shifted to real-world perspectives, each showing how innovation at the intersection of design, engineering, and clinical practice can reshape healthcare access.
Case Study 1: Synergies
Architect Emery Karenzi from Build Health Internatinal shared insights from his work planning and designing healthcare facilities across different regions. He emphasized the synergies between architecture and health systems planning, highlighting the importance of policy alignment, standardization, and adaptation to local realities. His approach underscored user-centric design, customization to available technology, and thoughtful spatial flow to optimize both patient and staff experience.
A striking lesson was that beyond healthcare impact, well-designed facilities can stimulate economic growth in surrounding communities — one hospital he worked on became a catalyst for new businesses and services, proving that healthcare infrastructure can generate wider social and economic returns.
Case Study 2: Designing Hope
Naom Monari, CEO, Benacare, presented “Designing Hope: Engineering Shipping Containers into Life Saving Units.” She addressed a stark challenge: patients in rural Kenya often travel up to 200 kilometers, twice a week, for dialysis treatment — a burden that many cannot sustain, leading to poor adherence to treatment and preventable complications.
Her solution was bold yet practical: transforming shipping containers into fully functional dialysis units on wheels. By re-engineering these containers, Benacare created mobile facilities capable of delivering life-saving renal care closer to where patients live. This innovation drew on the combined expertise of clinicians, biomedical engineers, architects, and local artisans. Today, through Benacare and Renal Roads, these units handle up to 800 dialysis sessions each month, reducing travel burdens, improving adherence, and restoring dignity to patients who previously faced impossible barriers to care.
Case Study 3: Design Meets Diagnosis
Laud Anthony, Founder & CEO of Incas Global, provided a biomedical engineer’s perspective in his talk, “Design Meets Diagnosis.” He highlighted the need to approach healthcare facility design with a systems mindset — ensuring that diverse equipment and devices can work together seamlessly. He called for stronger standards and practices, not just in the procurement and installation of medical devices, but in how they integrate into wider healthcare workflows. His remarks reinforced the principle that biomedical engineering is not a downstream service but a strategic enabler of quality and efficiency in healthcare delivery.
Interactive Design Charrette – Co-Creating Roadmaps
The highlight of the session, facilitated by Wambui Nyabero, was an interactive design charrette that brought participants from different disciplines together to solve a real-world challenge: designing scalable, adaptable diagnostic and primary care clinic modules for peri-urban and rural areas.
Participants split into three groups — Systems & Stakeholders, Execution, and User Experience — and each group examined the challenge from its unique perspective. Rather than simply discussing ideas, the groups worked interactively to develop roadmaps, identifying practical steps, enablers, and constraints.
The Systems & Stakeholders group mapped out which institutions and regulators needed to be engaged, and when, to ensure policies, financing, and supply chains would support the rollout of modular clinics.
The Execution group outlined a roadmap for implementation, covering planning, construction, local material sourcing, renewable energy integration, and deployment strategies.
The User Experience group developed a patient- and provider-centered roadmap, emphasizing workflow, infection control, cultural sensitivity, and affordability.
By the end of the charrette, participants had produced tangible roadmaps and frameworks that could guide real-world implementation, proving that cross-disciplinary collaboration can move quickly from vision to actionable strategy.
Key Takeaways
Several clear lessons emerged from this session:
- Early, cross-disciplinary collaboration is essential. Architects, biomedical engineers, and clinicians must work together from the outset of facility planning to avoid costly retrofits and workflow inefficiencies.
- Healthcare facilities can drive broader economic growth. Beyond clinical outcomes, well-designed health infrastructure can stimulate surrounding communities by creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and attracting investment.
- Mobile, modular solutions are transformative. Containerized dialysis units demonstrated that when disciplines converge, accessible and scalable innovations can bring critical care closer to underserved populations.
- Roadmaps create momentum. The design charrette proved that interactive, multidisciplinary workshops can move from dialogue to practical implementation plans, offering a clear pathway for governments, NGOs, and private actors to act upon.
- Human experience matters. Patient and staff perspectives must shape facility layouts, workflows, and technology integration to improve safety, efficiency, and dignity of care.
- Biomedical engineers are strategic system thinkers. Their role goes beyond equipment maintenance; they ensure interoperability, standardization, and long-term sustainability of technologies within health facilities.
- Policy and financing must align with design. Without the right regulatory frameworks, funding models, and supply chain systems, even the best architectural and technological innovations risk remaining underutilized.
Conclusion
This session, led by Wambui Nyabero, proved that Africa’s MedTech innovation cannot be viewed in isolation from the physical and social infrastructures that support it. The healthcare ecosystem can move closer to delivering sustainable, context-sensitive solutions by bridging architecture, biomedical engineering, and clinical practice. The conversation was not just about buildings or machines, but about designing integrated systems for healing, dignity, and efficiency — a critical step forward in reimagining African healthcare.
