- Tell us more about yourself?
My name is Israel Bimpe, a Rwandese and a Pharmacist by profession. Currently, I’m the Director of Africa Go-To-Market for Zipline in charge of expanding our services geographically and into new use cases on the continent.
I have served in this organization in various capacities like the Head of National Implementation in Rwanda ensuring integration within the healthcare system and civil aviation. I was also the head of the Global Health Systems Integration, and also lead global partnerships with global health partners and donors.
I previously worked for another drone company as the Country Manager in Rwanda.
I studied Pharmacy at the University of Rwanda and took up multiple leadership roles while in school. At the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation(IPSF), I served as the Student Exchange Officer in Rwanda, Regional Relations Officer for AfRO, Chairperson of AfRO, Vice President, and eventually President of IPSF in 2016.
- What is Zipline? What services does it offer?
Zipline is an American Company that manufactures and uses a drone delivery system in strengthening health care services. Through the use of drones, Zipline has provided warehousing, fulfilment and drone delivery services that have gone a long way in fulfilling Supply Chain and Logistics across the world and helped in achieving patient-centered outcomes.
Zipline currently focuses on the delivery of blood, medical products, and vaccines. During the Covid 19 pandemic, Zipline was key in the delivery of covid samples, personal protective equipment, and vaccines.
Our services have had a national impact in Rwanda and Ghana and we make about 150 flights per day.
- Why drone for drug delivery?
The main reasons for adopting this included:
- Equitable access in areas with accessibility constraints and poor infrastructure.
- Efficiency and agility in the designing of health supply chain systems
- Ensuring every single unit of product is delivered in the most efficient possible ways.
- Providing an opportunity to take and deliver the medical products to the patients as opposed the patient looking around for the product.
- During the pandemic, Zipline adopted a centralized system of delivery of PPEs on a demand basis, and this ensured equitable distribution and prevented cases of hoarding.
- What are some of the challenges faced in drug delivery through drones?
Challenges are opportunities to do better and refine the system.
- Adapting to new technologies and embracing change. The supply chain systems in Africa are very rigid and are less likely to adapt to new technologies even if they offer tremendous benefits.
As a result of this, for technology start-ups like us, the achieving of goals and objectives is delayed.
This is a call for people to remain open-minded and embrace technology in offering solutions to the challenges they may be experiencing.
- What is the future and potential of drug delivery by drone in Africa and globally?
Drone delivery has a very great potential globally and most importantly in Africa. Mirroring Rwanda, in Africa, it can be specifically implemented in:
- Reducing maternal mortality by improving accessibility. Delivery of blood and blood products as most rural hospitals are not able to store and transfuse the rare blood products like fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate that need to be stored at a temperature of -30 degrees Celsius and expire within 24 hours outside their cold chain requirements.
- Designing a supply chain system that is very agile and responsive to the needs of a patient in delivering scarce products. Delivery of an urgently needed snake anti-venom vs overstocking the anti-venoms that are rarely used resulting in dead stock and expiries.
- As someone who has served as the president of IPSF, what challenges do you think pharmacy students faced globally?
Sadly, we get trained in Pharmacy School for a practice that is going to be obsolete by the time we graduate and get into the field. This cuts across from technology to the clinical aspect. This is a reality that every Pharmacy student needs to prepare for.
In most African countries, the practice of Pharmacy has been confined to the community sector. Pharmacists at the Clinical level are not recognized and respected as they should be. Especially at the structural level, even at the Ministry of Health on very rare occasions would you find the allocated number of Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacists employed being equivalent to the workload available and are mostly limited to handling inventory with very little contribution to the overall care of the patient.
It is very evident that there is a significant disconnect between academics, the practice, and the industry.
- You have served in various capacities in your professional capacity. With that in mind, what is the role of pharmacists in the strengthening healthcare delivery systems?
Pharmacists are leaders in healthcare and they have a very unique contribution. It is imperative that they embrace that, and channel that power to voice their concerns. This may be through associations or professional bodies, running as candidates for elected offices to get an opportunity to change the systems from within.
Pharmacists need to fully reclaim this responsibility.
- What advice would you give a young pharmacist struggling to find their bearing in the murky job waters?
Be open-minded in what you can do and what contributions you can bring on board. The confinement of what the profession is about and what our roles could be are dangerous and we need to stop limiting ourselves about how far we can go and what we can do.
Be curious. Never turn down an opportunity because it’s a new way of doing something and start thinking of how impactful it can be as regards provision of patient care and creation of other business opportunities given that Pharmacists are entrepreneurial by nature.
Be a problem solver. Stop complaining and look for solutions. Consider bridging financial technologies in the provision of patient care. Is there a better way that mobile phones can be optimized for patient care?
9. How can pharmacists foster international partnerships?
There already are existing platforms for students and professionals. We have the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation(IPSF), a platform for students, and The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) for professionals.
These are important networking platforms to spur global partnerships and discussions to advance the profession. However, there is a significant lack of utilization of these already existing platforms to build connections.
I’d like to implore pharmacists to utilize these available opportunities and open up their minds to collaboration.
VIVA LA PHARMACIE!