Her journey began when she enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe to study for a degree in biomedical engineering. There, she quickly discovered a passion for innovation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recognising the risks for students in repeatedly touching shared hand sanitiser dispensers, she designed an automatic dispenser made from recycled materials. She presented this during the University of Zimbabwe 2021 Research and Innovation Week where she received her very first innovation award, and she later received a Millennium Fellowship certificate on completion of the project. The dispenser was introduced in her own community, where it was used at entry points at clinics, stores and churches.

However, the real turning point came in 2023 during an internship at the Old Mutare Mission Hospital in rural Manicaland. Paidaishe discovered that the average distance travelled to a health facility in Zimbabwe’s rural provinces was between 40 and 200km. Pointing to the burden this places on poor rural households, Paidaishe says,

This was when I started asking myself how technology could make healthcare more accessible for people in rural areas, not just those living in cities.

As her degree progressed, so too did her conviction that technological innovation has little value when the healthcare improvements it enables do not reach those people who need them most – she resolved to focus on this challenge. For her final year project in 2025, Paidaishe designed a solar-powered mobile dialysis unit aimed at bringing urgent treatment for chronic kidney failure closer to people’s homes.

Today, Paidaishe continues to develop these ideas through her startup, HeyNala Healthtech Solutions, where she leads a multidisciplinary development team. Their current innovations include a non-invasive glucose monitor and Nala, an AI-powered nursebot designed to help people living with chronic illnesses better manage their care. Although these technologies are still undergoing pre-clinical testing and refinement, they all share the same goal: to make health services more accessible for those who have traditionally been left behind.

A Day in the Life

Paidaishe describes her working life as a ‘balancing act’ between her various roles. Mornings begin at the University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, where Paidaishe mentors students working on their own innovation projects. She helps them to refine their ideas and encourages them to think about how their technologies can solve real-world healthcare challenges. For the most promising concepts, she helps students map out the journey from prototype to commercialisation.

Later on, she may head over to the biomedical engineering workshop where she dons safety shoes and coveralls and sets to work on HeyNala’s own prototypes. “If you have a vision,” she says, “you need to stay hands-on and keep your feet firmly on the ground to make it happen.”

As technical lead, Paidaishe remains closely involved in every stage of product development, from design and fabrication through to clinical testing. Her afternoons are often spent coordinating the wider business: supervising colleagues, meeting with the software, marketing and legal teams, and working with business advisers. She also finds time to work on research publications, and continues to benefit from the guidance of mentors who have supported HeyNala’s growth from the start.

Field visits are also an important part of her working day. Paidaishe regularly travels several hours from Harare to rural communities in Manicaland, where she demonstrates new technologies, gathers feedback from potential users, and runs awareness sessions on telehealth and connected medical devices.

Paidaishe is also starting to represent Zimbabwe internationally. With support from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and the University of Zimbabwe, she has attended World Expo 2025 in Osaka. She also exhibited her startup at VivaTech 2026 in Paris, where she showcased her team’s innovations, exchanged ideas with entrepreneurs from around the world, and started to build valuable professional networks.

At heart, Paidaishe is both an innovator and an academic. She is fascinated by the potential of connected technologies and artificial intelligence to complement biomedical engineering and solve healthcare challenges that have long affected underserved communities. And as she continues to grow HeyNala, she also hopes to work towards attaining her Masters and PhD.

Being a Woman in Digital Health

Biomedical engineering remains a field where men significantly outnumber women, but Paidaishe believes the landscape is steadily changing in Zimbabwe. More women are choosing STEM subjects and increasing efforts are being made to support women innovators. Paidaishe herself was recognised with a Presidential Innovation Award, and has received many other awards recognising her contributions to digital technology, including a Women in Digital Health Africa Innovators Award and University of Zimbabwe’s Best Woman Innovator.

When Paidaishe began her studies, female role models in her chosen field were hard to find. However, she was not discouraged by this, and she resolved to pave the way for other young women who would come after her. Whether speaking at conferences, exhibiting HeyNala’s technologies or mentoring students, Paidaishe intentionally uses every opportunity to encourage more girls to consider careers in engineering and digital health. She says, “I decided early on I wanted to be that role model for other young women.”

It’s all about inclusion

For Paidaishe, inclusion extends well beyond gender. She continually encourages her team to consider who might be excluded from a new technology and how it could be adapted to better meet their needs. When developing HeyNala’s non-invasive glucose monitor, for example, the team commissioned a visually impaired intern to develop a user guide in Braille, ensuring the device would be more accessible for people living with visual impairments.

Ultimately, Paidaishe believes that the true measure of innovation is not how sophisticated the technology is, but whether its benefits reach those who need them most. She even goes so far as to say,

Is it still innovation if it only benefits a minority of people?

Perhaps Paidaishe’s greatest reward has been her seeing ideas about inclusion take root within the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Student projects are now assessed not only on their technical merit, but also on their potential to benefit underserved communities –reflecting the growing appreciation that innovation should be judged by the difference it can make in people’s lives.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, Paidaishe would like to see greater investment in women innovators, as well as more scholarships and international opportunities available to Zimbabweans no matter where they live. She also wants stronger support for young people with promising ideas and hopes that they will be continuously encouraged and mentored to help locally developed technologies move from prototype to practice. For Paidaishe, the future of digital health is not simply about smarter technology. It is about making sure everyone can benefit from it.