IME at the Table: Why Presence Matters in Global Health

"This kind of relationship capital cannot be manufactured through marketing. It can only be built through sustained, genuine presence — showing up, contributing, listening, and following through."

In global health, relationships are not a supplement to the work. They are the work.

You can have the strongest research, the most carefully designed programs, the most innovative technology partners. But if you are not in the room when decisions are made — when ministries set their priorities, when funders align their strategies, when institutions choose their collaborators — those assets rarely get the chance to prove themselves.

IME makes it a priority to be present. Not as observers. As participants.

This year alone, IME's presence at key convenings has opened doors that no cold introduction could match.

At the G20 Y20 Summit in South Africa (2025), IME connected with some of the most promising young health-technology founders on the continent. One of those connections — with the founder of Turbomedics, a health platform built by and for the generation that will inherit Africa's health systems — has grown into an ongoing dialogue about what collaboration between established global health institutions and youth-led innovation can look like. That conversation would not have started without both parties in the room.

At industry panels and health informatics gatherings, IME has contributed to discussions on AI in African healthcare, data sovereignty, and the standards that will govern cross-border health information exchange. These are not abstract debates. They determine which technologies get deployed, which populations get served, and whose data is protected.

The most valuable outcome of showing up is rarely the one listed on the agenda. When a Ministry of Health official remembers a conversation from a panel six months earlier, or when a potential academic partner has already encountered IME's name in a working group before receiving a formal introduction, the groundwork has been laid. Trust has begun to accumulate. The ask, when it comes, is not cold.

Looking ahead, IME's participation in global health convenings will continue and intensify. The 2027 AI4AfricanHealth Conference will be, in many respects, the culmination of years of showing up — an event designed not just to present work, but to convene the full range of partners whose collaboration will define the next decade of African health innovation. If you will be at the events where African health and technology intersect, we would like to be in the room together.