Morocco kicks off their 2018 World Cup campaign today at 5pm (Central African Time) when they take on Iran. The Atlas Lions currently on an 18-game unbeaten run and have been wandering the World Cup desert since France 98.
Deserts — that’s something MedTrucks founders Jamir Derrouiche (pictured above, right) and Anass El Hilal (pictured above, left) don’t shy away from when it comes to providing medical care to patients in remote areas.
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In 2015 the duo founded MedTrucks, a startup that wants to ensure that patients are never more than 20 minutes away from medical care through its mobile health services.
Morocco’s MedTrucks goal is to ensure that patients are never more than 20 minutes away from medical care
The startup aims to do this through a combination of its six-patient capacity “medical caravans”, real-time patient mapping, a telemedicine and an online training platform for medical professionals.
Medtrucks solutions have been piloted by Moroccan and French governments. One of its largest pilots in Morocco saw the startup use its trucks — which featured triple metric dialysis units (used in renal therapy) — to treat up to 30 patients a day per truck.
MedTrucks is on a roll. This week the Moroccan startup was listed as one of the finalists of the Innovation Prize Mutual Favorite. Earlier this year, the company was one of 11 selected to join startup incubator and accelerator The Village by CA Alpes-Provence.
The startup is also the winner of the 2016 Orange Social Venture Prize, as well as a finalist of the Global Social Venture Competition, and was one of 10 African startups selected by Sanofi, a biopharamceutical firm, to participate at last month’s Viva Tech summit held in Paris.
Many football pundits are pinning Morocco’s success at the World Cup on little known frontman, Ayoub el Kaabi who made his debut for Morocco earlier this year.
Could MedTrucks have come up with an innovative solution to the issue of remote medical care for not only North Africa, but the rest of the continent, and possibly the world?
As has been the case in history, little known dark horses tend to bring the biggest upsets. After Egypt’s 1-0 defeat to Uruguay this afternoon, African fans will hope Morocco fares better.
This piece is part of a series of 12 articles is meant to be a light-hearted way that Ventureburn aims to draw attention to and celebrate African innovation and African startups.
African results so far:
Egypt 0-1 Uruguay (Group A, 15 June)
Read more: Ahead of the Pharoahs’ Group A match, meet Egyptian healthtech Vezeeta
Read more: This is how Ventureburn will celebrate African tech startups this World Cup
Featured image: MedTrucks via Facebook
