In an industry as vital and emotionally charged as healthcare, innovation must go hand-in-hand with empathy. Alignd, a South African value-based healthcare company, and Zoho, a multinational tech company—have proven that with the right digital tools, it’s possible to deliver both.
Alignd’s first programme focuses on providing value-based palliative care, especially for advanced cancer patients — a space where current systems often fall short. In South Africa, over R20 billion is spent annually by the private sector on end-of-life care, yet most patients die in hospitals, despite expressing a clear wish to die at home. Palliative care isn’t properly reimbursed, and providers face an uphill battle trying to deliver dignified care in a fragmented, inefficient system.
Alignd is working to change that by placing dignity and quality of life at the centre of its model. The company is transforming terminal care from a reactive, hospital-driven experience to one that is proactive, coordinated, and deeply human.
“Our mission is to recreate the healthcare system of South Africa, one complex problem at a time,” says Dr. Lungi Nyathi, CEO of Alignd. “We believe that meaningful change won’t come from small fixes. It requires intentional, systems-level design.”
To make that vision scalable, Alignd turned to Zoho.
“Zoho offered a broad suite of products that all talk to each other,” explains a member of the operations team at Alignd. “That kind of integration was critical to making our operations more effective, both internally and externally.”
One of the biggest challenges Alignd faced early on was the complexity of enrolling patients into its care programmes. Referrals come from a wide range of sources — oncologists, GPs, even the patients themselves — and each case follows a nuanced pathway. With Zoho’s blueprints and workflow rules, Alignd was able to automate the enrolment process, track where every patient is in their journey, and keep all stakeholders informed in real time.
“Zoho has significantly reduced the admin burden on our Enrolment and Patient Support teams,” stated an operations team member. “That means they can focus on what matters most —supporting doctors, nurses, social workers, and patients themselves.”
Beyond Enrolment: Zoho as a critical infrastructure tool
While enrolment automation was a gamechanger, Alignd’s use of Zoho extends far beyond that. The company leverages Zoho CRM to manage and coordinate its network of stakeholders — from healthcare professionals to patients and their families.
The team uses Zoho Desk in combination with Zoho Analytics to efficiently manage and streamline support queries from network healthcare professionals in the field. Many parts of Alignd’s operations are bolstered by Zoho. This has helped the organisation stay agile and integrated without adding complexity.
For Andrew Bourne, Regional Head for Zoho Africa, the partnership with Alignd exemplifies the power of technology when it’s designed with people in mind.
“We don’t believe in software that requires a consultant to use,” says Bourne. “Our tools are meant to be intuitive and accessible, allowing organisations like Alignd to focus on their mission — not on learning complicated systems.”
Alignd aims to continuously demonstrate measurable improvements in quality of life for its patients while also satisfying the rigorous reporting needs of healthcare regulators and funders. Zoho’s suite of tools, such as Zoho DataPrep, has been instrumental in efficiently enabling this goal.
“Palliative care is not linear,” explains Dr. Nyathi. “It requires a system that can move with the patient’s needs while making sure the right data is visible to the right people at the right time. That’s what Zoho has helped us do.”
Moreover, the results speak for themselves. “Zoho has played an instrumental role in enabling the enrolment process in the patient journey. As the number of patients we care for has grown to a total of over 4800 families—this impact has been felt more significantly” added Dr. Nyathi.
“Healthcare is one of the most complex and critical sectors in any economy, and it’s often the one most burdened by fragmented systems and manual processes. What makes Alignd’s approach so powerful is their use of technology to humanise care,” says Bourne. “By integrating Zoho’s suite, they’ve been able to streamline operations while freeing up their team to do what matters most — focus on the patient. That’s the kind of impact we aim to enable.”
