Following MobApplic’s findings on the issues affecting Kenyan health care system, the mobile application developer has developed three applications in response, including M-Patient, M-Aware and M-Rx.
According to MobApplic, the majority of Africans who own mobile phones are unable to access basic health care services due to high cost of treatment and inaccessibility of the health centres. The findings formed the backdrop for which the applications were developed.
“We saw the success in the mobile money sector and decided why not make health care more easily accessible to many people via the mobile phone?” Jackie Owiti, Founder MobApplic, told HumanIPO.
The new app named M-Patient, which target developing countries, is a booking and payment platform that enables users to book hospital appointments six hours in advance and pay for treatments from their mobile phones. Once the appointment is due, the users attend the appointments without having to queue up.
M-Patient also has Text and voice calls service that allow users to make phone calls or send text messages to customer service assistants to book the appointments.
According to Owiti, Africa is not developing at the required speeds since health care, which is an integral part of the economy is neglected.
“You will however find that for someone to go for an appointment, right from identifying the hospital, booking, queuing waiting to see the doctor takes a very long time. Some people even have to ask for seek-offs just to get medical attention, yet most of these processes can be eliminated or simplified by technology,” Owiti said.
MobApplic has also recently developed M-Aware, an application designed to teach people about HIV/AIDS and stop them from having unsafe sex. It has eight questions that if answered right, awards the user free airtime.
The UN has since considered trying out M-Aware to educate people living with HIV/AIDS on new infections and other health safety measures.
The firm also developed M-Rx, an anti-stigma application and dissemination application. The application makes it easy for people living with HIV/AIDS to get their ARV’s without fear of stigmatization by the health workers.
“Some nurses have been found to be very nasty to people living with HIV/AIDS, mocking them every time they come for their ARV’s. This leads to humiliation and making the patients avoid coming for the medicine again,” Owiti said.
The application also reminds the users of the due dates to collect the ARVs from the hospital.
