You must have been to a new doctor. The doctor asks you numerous questions regarding your health history, most of which you can’t recall. That’s because it has taken you more than a decade to visit another hospital, but most importantly it is because you have no idea what those long difficult to pronounce medical terminologies are. And then, there is the part where they never give you your health records, even when they keep them in digital formats.
Now imagine this, imagine that you have access to your health records, and that you can grant any doctor you trust access to the said records. Imagine how easy it will be for both you and the doctor to understand your health history and current health situation. And this is exactly what Safaricom in partnership with Savannah Informatics Limited and IntelliSOFT Consulting Limited have created. They call it Afya Moja.
According to a press statement, Afya Moja is a simple, mobile based digital health passport that receives and securely stores patient information. It allows users to access a copy of their own health information and the ability to share it with trusted health providers. It allows doctors, upon consent, to have access to patients’ medical backgrounds and therefore respond effectively to their needs.
“What we aim to do through Afya Moja, is to make patient medical records portable so that patients and healthcare workers can access them any time they need them. We will be focusing on diabetes patients during the initial stages of this pilot as we move on to other patients with other chronic diseases”, said Steve Chege, Chief Corporate Affairs, Safaricom.
An initial eight hospitals will benefit from this partnership including PGH Nakuru Level 5 Hospital, Naivasha Sub County Hospital, Molo Sub County Hospital and Keringet Sub County Hospital. Other hospitals in the pilot are; Soin-Mogotio Sub County Hospital, Kiptangwany Health Centre, Mirugi Kariuki Sub County Hospital and Gilgil Health Centre.
“Mobile as an enabler for health is still largely untapped. Challenges with patient identification remain across the ecosystem with difficulty linking patients to information. Despite increased digitization of patient information, interoperability of systems is very difficult to achieve so information remains siloed sometimes even within the same facility. Afya Moja aims to address this challenge,” Said Steven Wanyee, Director of Biomedical Informatics, IntelliSOFT Consulting Limited.
The implementation of the Afya Moja Program will be rolled out in different counties in the coming months leading up to a full adoption countrywide. Safaricom will provide the technology platform which will enable patients access their health records and medical backgrounds through their mobile phones.
Last year Safaricom was included in the 2020 Fortune Change the World List for its role in transforming how people in Kenya are paying for and accessing healthcare through M-TIBA which is a partnership with CarePay and PharmAccess
M-TIBA which has over 4 million users enables people to save, send, receive and pay for medical treatment through a mobile health wallet on their phone. The solution has previously won the shared value category at the 2017 Loeries Awards and received the FT/IFC Transformational Business Award in Sustainable Development.
