Our Story
Scan for Africa was founded by Dr. Titilayo (Titi) Afolabi out of her passion to see people in
Africa have the same access to ultrasound technology as her patients in the United States.
Dr. Titilayo Afolabi
Founder, Scan for Africa
public health experts to invest in the work; and sustainability – building local capacity in performing ultrasounds.
Witnessing her only caregiver temporarily lose her mobility, in large part due to a lack of health literacy and access to healthcare, ignited Titi’s passion to better understand the interplay between cardiovascular risk factors and the social determinants of health. She worked hard to achieve a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Yale University in 2015. Afterwards, she felt that it was important to return to New York City and to teach health science to high school students, a subject that she felt had changed the trajectory of her life
Scan for Africa was founded during Titi’s last year of residency and is named in honor of Teach for America. Since then, Scan for Africa has remained focused in its mission to decentralize essential medical knowledge and skills, raise the standard of healthcare in Africa, and give others the opportunity to contribute to the movement for global health equity. Scan for Africa firmly believes that all patients deserve access to life-saving technology and continues to tirelessly work towards that goal.
During her trips to Africa, Titi noticed that healthcare workers often had very limited information when making medical decisions. She knew how important ultrasounds are in emergency departments and medical wards when assessing symptoms such as shortness of breath and making diagnoses of heart and pulmonary lung conditions. Ultrasound was rarely used in these situations.
The vast difference between the quality of healthcare in her two homes – Africa and the United States – inspired her to consider solutions that could assist local healthcare workers in managing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. This sparked the creation of “Scan for Africa.”
Titi’s interest in advancing the cardiovascular health of African people is inspired by her personal story. She was raised in a single-parent, low-income immigrant household led by her determined Nigerian mother. Her mother moved her and her sibling to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream because she wanted her children to have access to the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty. This sacrifice had its consequences; healthcare was well out of her family’s budget and her mother went years without seeing a doctor, resulting in a stroke at the age of 48.
Titi joined the organization Teach For America (TFA) in 2015 and describes her two years of teaching science in high schools in the Bronx, New York as a pivotal experience in her career. Teaching Black and Latinx students about heart disease further inspired her to return to medical school so that she could gain the expertise necessary to treat patients from these communities. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2021 and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2024.
Scan for Africa was founded by Dr. Titilayo (Titi) Afolabi out of her passion to see people in Africa have the same access to ultrasound technology as her patients in the United States.
During her trips to Africa, Titi noticed that healthcare workers often had very limited information when making medical decisions. She knew how important ultrasounds are in emergency departments and medical wards when assessing symptoms such as shortness of breath and making diagnoses of heart and pulmonary lung conditions. Ultrasound was rarely used in these situations.
Dr. Titilayo Afolabi
The vast difference between the quality of healthcare in her two homes – Africa and the United States – inspired her to consider solutions that could assist local healthcare workers in managing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. This sparked the creation of “Scan for Africa.”
public health experts to invest in the work; and sustainability – building local capacity in performing ultrasounds.
Titi’s interest in advancing the cardiovascular health of African people is inspired by her personal story. She was raised in a single-parent, low-income immigrant household led by her determined Nigerian mother. Her mother moved her and her sibling to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream because she wanted her children to have access to the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty. This sacrifice had its consequences; healthcare was well out of her family’s budget and her mother went years without seeing a doctor, resulting in a stroke at the age of 48.
Witnessing her only caregiver temporarily lose her mobility, in large part due to a lack of health literacy and access to healthcare, ignited Titi’s passion to better understand the interplay between cardiovascular risk factors and the social determinants of health. She worked hard to achieve a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Yale University in 2015. Afterwards, she felt that it was important to return to New York City and to teach health science to high school students, a subject that she felt had changed the trajectory of her life
Titi joined the organization Teach For America (TFA) in 2015 and describes her two years of teaching science in high schools in the Bronx, New York as a pivotal experience in her career. Teaching Black and Latinx students about heart disease further inspired her to return to medical school so that she could gain the expertise necessary to treat patients from these communities. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2021 and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2024.
Scan for Africa was founded during Titi’s last year of residency and is named in honor of Teach for America. Since then, Scan for Africa has remained focused in its mission to decentralize essential medical knowledge and skills, raise the standard of healthcare in Africa, and give others the opportunity to contribute to the movement for global health equity. Scan for Africa firmly believes that all patients deserve access to life-saving technology and continues to tirelessly work towards that goal.