By Matthew Brady 
Malaysian digital health company UCrest Berhad has signed an agreement with Rwandan digital payment platform and business process outsourcing company StayOnline to provide intelligent medical services to patients in sub-Saharan Africa.
Under the agreement, the two companies will integrate StayOnline’s payment gateways into UCrest’s iMedic digital health e-commerce platform, ensuring that millions of users in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia have easy access to medical service providers within those countries.
Patients in Africa will also gain access to leading specialists in the United States, Europe, China, and Singapore, with providers that include MD Anderson, Stanford University Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and Mayo Clinic in the United States, as well as 301 Hospital and Union Hospital in China.
The integrated platform will furthermore enable StayOnline Ltd’s merchants to market their products and services to users in Asia.
UCrest and StayOnline will additionally jointly develop an iMedic Centre of Excellence (“iCOE”) for digital health located in Rwanda. In collaboration with leading medical service providers and universities or research centres, iCOE will provide training and certification to doctors, accelerating the digitalisation of the healthcare industry.
UCrest envisions iCOE as a catalyst that will establish Rwanda as an IoMT and AI healthcare hub, championing digital health across other African countries and benefiting many more patients continent-wide.