Tuduetso Masire connects global surgeons to underserved African patients, using technology to expand surgical access.
Tuduetso Masire’s journey into healthtech started with a personal crisis. In her early twenties, she faced cluster headaches – a debilitating condition that required her to seek specialist treatment outside Botswana. This was a defining experience. Not only was the pain physically overwhelming, but the process of finding care revealed a painful truth: access to surgical and specialist care is limited for many in Southern Africa. Long waiting lists, stretching years into the future, and a severe shortage of trained professionals make life-saving procedures feel out of reach.
This experience laid the foundation for MatchAPro, a healthtech platform Masire founded to address the critical shortage of surgical access across the region. Based in Botswana, MatchAPro uses advanced matching algorithms to connect volunteer surgeons worldwide with underserved patients in public hospitals, beginning in Botswana and South Africa’s Eastern Cape, with plans to expand across the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The platform streamlines the logistics of global medical missions, transforming a process that once took months into one that can now be organised in days.
MatchAPro’s algorithm is designed to match surgeons with patients based on urgency, surgical speciality, location, and training opportunities for local professionals. This system ensures international surgeons deliver care and also upskill local trainees during their missions. The platform has helped reduce surgical backlogs by up to 60 per cent in pilot regions by prioritising high-need cases and minimising administrative delays. At the same time, it has increased global surgeon engagement by removing entry barriers and optimising mission planning.
About Masire
Tuduetso holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and International Business from Saint Joseph’s University and a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Southern California. Her earlier work with Stanford Seed and De Beers exposed her to entrepreneurship development and market strategy in Africa, sharpening her perspective on healthcare inequality.
MatchAPro has gained recognition for its social innovation, winning USC’s New Venture Seed Competition and securing funding through the Blackstone Fellowship. The platform has also been selected for challenges aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, reflecting its growing influence on global health equity.
Beyond her role as founder, Tuduetso is now regarded as a health innovation strategist. She speaks publicly about addressing healthcare gaps with technology, drawing on her own experiences and the work her platform facilitates.
