Oxygen as a Service
By Lynne Ruddick, Oxygen CoLab Lead & Innovation Lead at Brink
Photography by Bony Kazi
In 2021, the Oxygen CoLab awarded a UKAid funded oxygen-as-a-service pilot (O2aaS) grant to FREO2 to test the scaling of an innovative business model that ensures the sustained provision of medical grade oxygen in low-resource settings in Tanzania. We believe business model innovation is necessary to get fail safe medical devices to low-and-middle-income country (LMIC) markets. The O2aaS pilot is designed as a means to test an ecosystem oriented business model that addresses the challenges of providing them. Our aim is to create effective business models that send signals to manufacturers of a growing market opportunity for high quality products in LMICs, and lead to sustainable use of devices in the field.
Since 2016, FREO2 has successfully provided life-saving oxygen in remote health centres in Uganda using their innovative oxygen concentrators and delivery systems. They began work in Tanzania in 2019, and started to scale their work in 2021 through the UK Aid funded O2aaS pilot programme.
In just six months, the team scaled to 12 under-resourced health centres across the rural northern part of Tanzania. These remote facilities had previously faced significant challenges in securing a continuous supply of oxygen: the high cost of purchasing, transporting and refilling of oxygen cylinders, and a context of stretched government funding.
Many children in Tanzania die as a result of premature birth asphyxia or pneumonia due to a lack of resources. For a small monthly fee, FREO2 are trialling the provision of oxygen concentrators, oxygen delivery systems and pulse oximeters with a wrap-around service which provides education around diagnosis, oxygen treatment, patient monitoring, and access to the in-country FREO2 Tanzania team who maintain the equipment. This complete solution integrates product, installation, education and social enterprise, and has already treated 1473 children, trained 77 health workers and employed 11 local staff across Tanzania.
On completion of the pilot, the Oxygen CoLab team were invited to Tanzania and we jumped at the chance to learn about the programme’s impact in real life using all of our senses! We are most grateful to FREO2 for their generous invitation and for looking after us so well. Brother George, and the team in Tanzania gave us a very warm welcome and we feel like we have extended our family.
There are many incredible stories we can pick out from our trip to Tanzania and we will be writing them up to share the learnings. For now, it’s important to highlight the multiple layers of impact this programme has had, from people requiring oxygen, those running services which require oxygen, the regions and communities that can benefit from oxygen provision, through to a government that wishes to better support oxygen policy and funding. The following describes these levels of impact and outlines the first iteration of the value of O2aaS after 6 months of work:
People who may require oxygen: Expectant mothers heard about babies surviving after being treated with oxygen and chose to go to these health centres even if they were further away. This highlighted the size of the need, although consideration must be given to the increased strain on wider healthcare resources.
Services wishing to provide oxygen: Clinicians were able to provide high quality assessment and oxygen treatment for babies using the correct equipment and knowledge. Health centre managers no longer needed to make difficult choices about who could access essential resources.
Regions/communities benefiting from oxygen services: Communities were better served, oxygen services created local jobs through social enterprise. Public health awareness improved through peer learning and the regional MP recognised the benefit within the community.
Government supporting oxygen policy and funding: An important NGO founder and social influencer connected the work to parliament and we were able to discuss health policy and gain health ministerial support to find further funding and support the scaling of the programme. The Regional MP’s support ensured the National Health Budget passed through parliament with no issue which sought to increase funding for prenatal births.
This is a phenomenal amount of impact in just 6 months and is testament to the human centred nature of this work. The FREO2 team worked with key in-country connectors such as the Christian Brothers and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mbulu, they looked for influencers and built a stakeholder plan, they focussed on in-county resilience and capability. They were not afraid to go where people and the problem are, which has ensured they were solving the right problem. We look forward to seeing this accelerate and amplify over the next 18 months. Thanks again team FREO2!
