Shiraaz Joosub, Healthcare Sales Executive, T-Systems South Africa Medical malpractice litigation costs South Africa millions of rands every year and drives up the cost of healthcare. While some claims of medical negligence have merit, the unfortunate reality is that there has been a spike in fraud in this area since 2017. Over the years, this has cost government billions and has had a devastating effect on the country's public healthcare sector. Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever to stop medical fraud in its tracks and reduce medical malpractice. Fortunately, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can assist greatly in developing a digital audit trail to protect healthcare providers against fraudulent medical malpractice claims.A cost beyond billionsIn 2018, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) began investigating medical fraud in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, after a spike of R8.4 billion in medical negligence claims.