The IME Network: Who We Are and Who We Connect With

"What makes this network function as more than a directory is IME's role as a convener. No single institution could hold all of that. IME can — because it has spent years cultivating relationships across all of those nodes."

IME is not a large organization with hundreds of employees. We are a focused team with an extensive network. That network — the institutions, professionals, and partners we work with — is IME's real strength.

Over the years, we have built relationships with health institutions across Africa, North America, and beyond. Universities, government ministries, technology companies, NGOs — they all form part of the ecosystem that IME operates in. But what makes this network more than just a list of names is what happens when these partners come together. The whole, in our case, is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts.

Our partners span disciplines, geographies, and sectors — and that breadth is intentional.

On the academic and research side, institutions like Morgan State University's School of Community Health & Policy, Lusaka Apex Medical University, The University of Lusaka, Ashesi University in Ghana, and The University of Ghana College of Health Sciences bring rigorous scientific grounding and a pipeline of emerging health professionals who will define the next generation of African healthcare. These are not passive affiliations. They are working relationships oriented around shared research, student exchange, and capacity building.

In the technology and innovation space, partners like Globalmed, Turbomedics, Zane Networks, AIBizHive and LumkoMDX, and Telemedicine Africa represent the applied edge of what is possible — from AI-enabled diagnostics to remote patient monitoring to last-mile digital health delivery. The African Technology Forum extends that reach further, connecting IME to the continent's broader technology ecosystem and the entrepreneurs and policymakers shaping it.

Our professional and standards bodies — including the U.S. National Medical Association (NMA)/W. Montague Cobb Health Institute, the South African Health Informatics Association (SAHIA), HELINA (the regional arm of the International Medical Informatics Association), and the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) based in Basel, Switzerland — provide the normative frameworks and professional legitimacy that anchor IME's work in globally recognized standards of practice.

And through The Canada International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO), IME maintains a bridge to one of the most active international scientific exchange ecosystems in the world.

This convening power matters in ways that are often invisible until a crisis or opportunity demands it. When a Ministry of Health needs a partner with African technical credibility and U.S. academic standing and established telemedicine infrastructure, IME does not have to build those relationships from scratch. They already exist. That readiness is the real asset.

There is also a multiplier effect. When leading telemedicine hardware meets HIPPA connectivity solutions in a shared deployment context, or when Ashesi University's technology curriculum aligns with the African Technology Forum's industry priorities, the collaboration produces outcomes neither could reach independently. IME creates the conditions for that kind of productive collision — across sectors, across borders, and across disciplines.

Africa is not waiting. The continent's health systems are increasingly shaped by African innovators, African institutions, and African priorities. What IME brings is not a paternalistic external hand — it is the infrastructure for partnerships that center African expertise, amplify African voices, and integrate global resources on African terms.

Looking Ahead: The IME AI4AfricanHealth Conference — 2027. The next major expression of this network will be the IME AI4AfricanHealth Conference, taking place in 2027. This convening will bring together the full range of IME's partners to focus on one of the most consequential questions facing global health today: how artificial intelligence can be responsibly and effectively deployed to strengthen health systems across the African continent.