As this week comes to a close we take a look at the stories that resonated most with our readers.
A robotic assistant joins ICU teams in Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Vodafone Ghana and Invest for Africa partner to advance the digital capabilities of SMEs in Ghana, and a massive widespread ransomware attack sees companies in 17 countries, including South Africa, affected.
Finally, AgriTourZA rewards R100,000 to Limpopo’s top innovators and techno-entrepreneurs.
Find out more about this week’s top articles:
4. Robot Joins ICU Teams in Pretoria Hospital to Help with COVID-19 Patients
The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria (UP) and Steve Biko Academic Hospital have welcomed “Stevie”, a mobile robot that will help improve the treatment of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stevie will allow instant live discussions and communications daily between German and South African intensive-care unit (ICU) teams.
COVID-19 has inspired the healthcare sector to rethink its current systems and how they can be more efficient, said Professor Tiaan de Jager, Dean of UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
This initiative is an interdisciplinary global telemedical collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Department of Critical Care at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, the Enhanced Recovery after Intensive Care (ERIC)-Tele ICU at Charité Medical University in Berlin, and the Robert Koch Institute.
3. Vodafone Ghana Partners with Invest in Africa, Advancing Digital Capabilities for Ghanaian SMEs
Invest In Africa (IIA) has partnered with Vodafone Ghana to support local businesses by enhancing their digital capabilities.
The partnership will provide local SMEs with tailor-made digital solutions to enable them to adapt to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, continue interacting with customers online and grow their businesses.
The specialised solutions to be made available through the partnership will fuel local innovation, support digital financial inclusion and stimulate business and economic growth.
2. SA Firms Struck by Massive $70-Million Ransomware Attack
Companies in 17 countries, including South Africa, the UK, Canada, Argentina, Mexico and Spain, were struck by a mass ransomware attack exploiting multiple previously unknown vulnerabilities in IT management software made by US-based software firm Kaseya.
Cybersecurity researchers are claiming that the attacker is a Russia-based hacking group who call themselves REvil. The group has demanded a ransom of $70-million to be paid in Bitcoin.
1. AgriTourZA is Rewarding R100,000 to Limpopo’s Top Technopreneurs and Innovators
On June 29th, AgriTourZA in partnership with mLab launched the Limpopo Innovation Platform Demo Day.
During the Demo Day, many hopeful companies had the opportunity to convince the panel of esteemed judges that they had a tech-savvy solution that will elevate the agricultural and tourism sectors in the Limpopo province, South Africa.
The solutions that were pitched varied from smart irrigation systems that save water and help maintain soil quality, to food security and agro-processing initiatives that create jobs within local communities.
The pitch panel then set out to select the four pitches that showed the best business potential and reward them with a basket of support aimed at helping their businesses thrive.
Included in this support is R100,000.00 ($7003,44) in early-stage seed funding.
By Luis Monzon
Follow Luis Monzon on Twitter
Follow IT News Africa on Twitter
