Our Team at Digital Health and Pharmacometrics Africa 2025
Last week, our group had the privilege of partaking in two landmark events for digital health and pharmacometrics in Africa.
The Digital Health Africa 2025 Conference and the Inaugural Pharmacometrics Africa 2025 Conference (PMXAC-2025) were hosted by Makerere’s Infectious Diseases Institute at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda, and marked important milestones for strengthening digital health and pharmacometric innovations across the continent.
- Digital Health Africa 2025: A continent-wide, hybrid meeting spanning Africa and Europe, designed to build long-term collaborations, with a special focus on maternal and child health and applying AI, pharmacometrics, and digital innovations to African health challenges.
- PMXAC-2025: The first dedicated pharmacometrics conference in Africa aiming to establish a strong regional platform for capacity building, training, and collaboration in pharmacometrics.
Highlights from our attendance
[Workshops] Sharon Sawe co-facilitated the opening hands-on workshop on the nlmixer2 R package for nonlinear mixed-effects modelling
[Poster session and prizes] Sharon Sawe presented her work on the effect of pregnancy and breastfeeding on the population pharmacokinetics of levofloxacin in South Africans with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis, for which she received the Outstanding Young Scientist Poster Award.
[Poster session] Lufina Tsirizani showcased her research on the population pharmacokinetics of first-line tuberculosis drugs in Haitian children under 5 years old, and the accuracy of finger-stick capillary sampling.
[Poster session] Avuyonke Balfour presented on the early pharmacokinetics of high-dose rifampicin in critically ill patients with HIV-associated tuberculosis.
These two conferences are a testament to Africa’s growing pharmacometrics landscape and a reminder of the importance of collaboration in the continent. The team returned home energised and inspired to carry this momentum through their own research. To close off, we leave you with this African proverb:
'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together'