Intelligent medical engagement wins top tech award

Dr Benji Ozynski and his medical assistance platform, Engage MX, won the prized tech entrepreneur category in the 2024 South African Future Trust (SAFT) Awards on 24 July. Engage MX has revolutionised healthcare, with at least 400 000 people with lifelong conditions being cared for without having to shuttle back and forth between doctors.

Ozynski, the chief executive of Engage MX, says the competition in this category was “so fierce” that they didn’t think they would land up on top, “so it was a pleasant surprise when we got the award”.

As a doctor, Ozynski recognised that “no doctor has time, over and above their day-to-day duties of seeing patients, to go looking through all of their files to identify and recall those patients who should be coming back to their practice but haven’t, for whatever reason”.

“Everyone has had the miserable experience of a close family member, friend, or even ourselves beginning to develop symptoms, seeing the doctor, doing some tests, and then being given a lifelong diagnosis,” he said. “That could be a chronic disease like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or something even more serious like cancer.

“The problem there is that healthcare is reactive. Hence, the system waits for patients to come and see their doctor. Forty percent of patients are non-compliant within their chronic disease.”

Engage MX’s availability to doctors and patients for the past two years has helped hundreds of thousands of South Africans manage lifelong diagnoses through this artificial intelligence driven smart assistant.

“It analyses all their billing data, medication data, and lab data, and uses all that to build a unique health, disease and risk profile for every patient in the background. It then recalls those patients who, based on their unique profile, are eligible for something with their doctor, and then Engage MX engages personally with each patient, informing them why they need to come back to their doctor,” says Ozynski.

“One of our first customers was a patient who had been identified and recalled by Engage MX. When the patient came back to the doctor, the patient had dangerously high blood pressure but it was asymptomatic so they weren’t feeling anything,” Ozynski says.

“The truth is that there are hundreds – if not thousands – of patients walking around like that. Maybe they already have a diagnosis, but, for whatever reason, haven’t returned to their doctor, or they are yet to be diagnosed and walking around with asymptomatic disease.”

Through the system, they identified and recalled a few hundred thousand of those patients. This year alone they have assisted in the prevention of two suicides because the system also works for mental health and psychiatry. Two patients were identified as being non-compliant. They had mental health conditions and hadn’t come back to their provider. Care co-coordinators reached out to the patients to make sure that they were on the right track regarding their mental health, and got them the help they needed.

Ozynski says there was a stringent application process for SAFT, followed by an interview. As finalists, they had to provide information such as financial documents.

Engage MX was one of three finalists in its category, and when the winner was announced the founders “felt a huge sense of support from everyone in the room”, says Ozynski.

SAFT, run by South African billionaire, businessman, and conservationist Jonathan Oppenheimer, enables small businesses by working with various partners in South Africa. The awards include six categories: innovation; youth; social; playbook; women in business; and tech entrepreneur.

Ozynski says having Oppenheimer as part of the selection process added to the gravity of winning the award. “Knowing that he was part of looking at our business and deciding that in our category we were the best is amazing.

“When you start a business, you’re kind of in the trenches and your head is down,” says Ozynski, “and even though your business grows, the growth is incremental and so sometimes it’s difficult to gauge your progress because of that.

“When you win an award against really strong competitors, it just gives you that little bit of reassurance that you’re on the right path.”

Each category winner received R500 000, including a cash injection of R250 000 for immediate business growth. A support package with mentorship from industry leaders and essential resources to accelerate the business trajectory is included.