AirBank: How LifeBank is planning to save over 600,000 lives with access to emergency oxygen

In a report by the Ministry of Health, more than 600,000 people lose their lives annually as a result of hypoxaemia, also known as low blood oxygen saturation in Africas most populous nation. To address this problem, LifeBank, a healthcare technology and logistics company, has launched AirBank, an emergency oxygen delivery product, to save Nigerians from a shortage of oxygen across the hospital.

According to LifeBank, its mission is to reduce the number of deaths linked to limited oxygen availability by improving oxygen distribution to hospitals through AirBank.

What is AirBank all about?

According to a statement on its website, AirBank services include on-demand emergency medical oxygen delivery to hospitals.

The company says it will soon start on-demand delivery of oxygen monitoring equipment like pulse oximeters, routine, scheduled delivery of oxygen to replenish depleted hospital stock.

Founded by Temie Giwa-Tubosun, in 2016 to solve the problems of blood shortage in Nigeria, LifeBank has been discovering and delivering blood to hospitals on time and in the right condition, saving the lives of thousands.

Founder of LifeBank, Temie Giwa-Tubosun ece-auto-gen

At the 2018 MIT Solve Global Challenge, LifeBank emerged winner under the “Frontlines of Health” Challenges category and raised $200,000 for expansion in the first quarter of 2018.

Despite the existence of National Policy on Medical Oxygen, Nigeria still faces a staggering burden of deaths due to lack of access to oxygen as several hospitals lack the equipment.

In 2016, a study by the Federal Ministry of Health found out that only 3 of 12 hospitals in the whole of Southwestern states had pulse oximeters in paediatric areas.