Beyond Mexico’s Healthcare Crisis: A Story Worth Sharing

2024 will be remembered for the sheer number of elections worldwide. By Dec. 31, at least 97 countries, nearly half of the world’s population, will have gone to the polls. Mexico has already become one of them, and much has been discussed since Claudia Sheinbaum’s win about what the essential agenda for the new administration should be. In this context, the critical state of the Mexican healthcare system has become a key topic: between 30 and 50 million of the country’s 130 million inhabitants lack access to healthcare.

Breast cancer exemplifies this crisis. In early 2022, when we arrived in Mexico with Mamotest, this is what we knew about the impact of this particular disease: It was by far the most lethal cancer among women, responsible for 17.2% of cancer deaths — followed by cervical cancer at 9.4% and liver cancer at 7.9% — and taking nearly 8,000 lives annually. Despite this, Mexico had the fewest mammograms — only 20% of women between 50 and 69 had been tested in a two-year period, according to OECD data. (This compares to the OECD average of 54%, with Chile, the next Latin American country on the list, at 35%, and Denmark, at the top, at 83%.) Moreover, a Mexican woman requiring a mammogram appointment in a public hospital faced a wait of at least three months, and results took another three to six months to return. Such delays can be almost a death sentence for patients needing timely treatment.

Our big “a-ha” moment was realizing that Mexican society lacks a strong culture of prevention, universal access to medical attention is not secured, and the healthcare system is so fragmented that there seems to be no path for collaboration. Alas, we reinvented Mamotest to become the highway to oncological solutions: the ecosystem where all stakeholders within the healthcare sector could unite their efforts. To achieve this, we developed Bolder, our state-of-the-art digital platform powered by artificial intelligence, that allows us to connect all these actors and provide 100% patient traceability. However, to truly reach Mexican women, we had to grasp their real-world needs and match them with the best available services already trusted and used by these women for their medical care.

The country’s farmacias have become integral to our strategy. Their model has proven to be a quick and cost-effective alternative to overcrowded public hospitals. However, pharmacies lack the technology needed to conduct mammograms. So we also involved private medical centers with underutilized mammography machines. By enabling the pharmacies’ clinicians to educate women about mammograms, we arranged low-cost mammograms at private centers. After the mammogram, we handle the tele-diagnosis with record speed and guide the patient through accessing necessary treatment, ensuring continuous care.

Needless to say, it’s a crystal clear win-win situation. Patients receive affordable breast cancer exams, high-quality and swift diagnosis, and timely access to treatment. Private clinics avoid idle equipment, while pharmacies add an essential service to their portfolio, enhancing their social impact and client trust. Prestigious players, such as Farmacias Benavides, Farmacias Similares (Dr. Simi) , Reina Madre, and Grupo Diagnóstico Aries, are already part of this model. Thanks to Mamotest’s global reach, soon we will also include award-winning international innovations like iBreast, a non-invasive pre-screening method that will allow pharmacies to provide a patient-friendly experience for women who undergo a breast cancer exam for the first time in their lives, thus encouraging women to continue their prevention journey.

However, this virtuous ecosystem would not be complete if it did not include the Mexican public health sector as well. That is why we have also started pilot tests in different regions of the country, where mammogram machines are available, but few radiologists are present. There, we provide our tele-diagnosis service with the same high quality and short time standards we promise to any other medical center, public or private. After a successful pilot test early this year in Mexicali, we are now working to establish a long-term collaboration. Benefits for the public healthcare system extend to significant financial savings: studies show that the annual costs of breast cancer treatment vary dramatically, depending on the stage of the disease, since treatment for a stage 4 patient costs the state roughly US$200,000, while treatment for a stage 1 patient costs less than US$75,000.

This story represents the collective effort of a diverse group of healthcare actors, both private and public, integrated by our unprecedented technology in order to close the gap in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. I hope sharing it inspires many others to join us as we face the challenges ahead. This is just the beginning, and we are confident that our technology will save thousands of lives. Although breast cancer is our main focus today, this model can be applied to defeat any type of cancer. The time has come for the long awaited evolution of the Mexican healthcare system to finally happen, and we could not be more thrilled to play our part in it.