Gabrielle Rosario

First generation South African, of Portuguese and English descent, I work for Deloitte South Africa and am part of the team building the “Connected Health” portfolio within Life Sciences and Healthcare across African markets, bringing with me, my knowledge and experience in digital technologies. I studied Psychology and Organisational Psychology at the University of Cape Town, graduating with a Post-Graduate qualification in Management. My career led me in the direction of developing digital strategies and campaigns for leading brands.

I have a challenging personal health journey that fuels my passion for the industry I aim to help improve. I have managed a chronic genetic rare disease, a primary immune deficiency that has resulted in multiple setbacks and life-long learning to manage energy, capacity and output.

Refusing to let it impact my contribution to society, I have developed a program called MyPossible that is a resource to patients, and care-givers of patients learning to cope with challenging health concerns. I believe in the proactive health consumer who accepts responsibility for their own health and my program encourages the philosophy of building healthy habits to achieve consistent health, best done by setting a physical goal.

For all the health challenges I have faced, I am also acutely aware of the health assets I do have and the opportunities the experience has afforded me. Whether as a "medical guinea pig," "pin-cushion" or patient community conference speaker, I have traveled extensively, broadening my network and understanding of healthcare in different markets. Managing a rare disease in a developing market with limited resources has highlighted the glaring disconnect between the medical advances and innovations (digital or clinical) being made in more mature markets and the medical needs and priorities in an emerging context. Reconciling and raising awareness of this disconnect is core to my purpose too. Early detection and prevention is critical to cutting the long-term health burden and improving population health; there is no reason why innovators can't take their "sexy Silicon Valley innovations" and apply them to broader contexts & needs.

Health is a luxury; preserve it, invest in it, value what you do have and make the most of the good days.