Africa Health Congress: Highlights from Day Two

The event is currently underway at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.

Introducing a germ-zapping robot

A key highlight for the event was the Xenex Germ Zapping Robot. This disinfection robot uses pulsed xenon UVC technology from a patented xenon bulb to eliminate pathogens on high-touch hospital surfaces in a five-minute “zapping” time.

“This is for sterilising a room once a patient has left, to reduce the risk of future patients contracting hospital acquired infections,” said Karen de Klerk, the marketing director at Kiara Health, an authorised reseller of Xenex products. “It can also be used in multioccupancy rooms when patients are in the beds, because the light from the bulb does not penetrate curtains, glass or wood, so they can be shielded from the zapping.”

The product eliminates all pathogens with a five-minute zapping time on either side of the patient’s bed.

Technology revolutionising endoscopy

Olympus showcased three new products in their imaging and energy lines. The first was the VISERA 4K UHD system, which provides four times the resolution of high definition imagery for endoscopy.

“This allows for a super-precise level of visualisation that was not possible before,” says Yannick Sieker, the business development manager for the Middle East and Africa region at Olympus. “The colour reproduction is also significantly improved, so that it’s closer to what the human eye can see, so doctors can detect between, for example, different shades of red in the tissue margins of a tumour to improve diagnosis.”

The other product that they have recently launched was the VISERA ELITE II, which allows surgeons to view endoscopy in 3D, giving them depth perception at a 30-degree angle (the angle at which surgery is usually performed), to allow for directional understanding when cutting or suturing.

And the final new Olympus product on display was the THUNDERBEAT, a single-use instrument with both high frequency and ultrasonic energies, so that when a surgeon cuts with ultrasound, the bipolar high frequency component immediately coagulates and seals the vessel to prevent bleeding.

At the Karl Storz stand, two new products were on show. One was the Vitcom 3D, which is a part of the Karl Storz Image 1S camera platform. “It allows you to visualise a surgical area on a 3D screen by providing enough magnification for all types of microsurgery - for example spine surgery,” says Johnny Kassab, the director of training and compliance for the East Mediterranean Gulf and Africa at Karl Storz.

The other of their new products was the Scenara, a software solution for endoscopic data content management, which allows integration of images and videos from procedures, with the hospital information system.

Neonatal care in the spotlight

Peggie Schlie, head of marketing at Dräger South Africa, which has exhibited at the Africa Health Exhibition for seven years, explained that this year they are focusing on the customer areas of neonatal care, intensive care and gas management systems.

“One of our most important products is the Babyleo TN500,” she says. “It’s the first incuwarmer that Dräger brought onto the market, and it functions as both a closed and open incubator, keeping the baby warm during the transition phase.”

They also showed for the first time their BiliLux LED Phototherapy solution for babies suffering from neonatal jaundice, providing superior phototherapy performance with electronic documentation capabilities and the flexibility to be seamlessly integrated into any workplace.

The 7th annual Africa Health Exhibition & Congress 2017 is currently taking place from 7-9 June 2017 at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. More than 10,000 regional and international healthcare professionals and medical experts are expected to attend the event during the course of the three days.