When Vincent Chepkwony saw his mother’s health condition escalate from a mere toothache to a full-blown health problem, he knew something had to be done about Kenya’s access to healthcare. This was in January 2017.
“My mother attended Kapkatet Hospital to get medication only to be referred to Litei Hospital. Because of the congestion at Litei Hosital, and the severe pain my mother was going through, she took matters into her own hands and begged one of the nurses to help her. Long story short, she was given the wrong medication which aggravated her condition, until when we found out much later,” says Vincent.
Something had to be done. Three years later, and something has been done.
“From that moment, a seed was planted in me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What if my mother had died?”
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Truer words have never been spoken. Armed with an idea and passion, Vincent migrated to the US for further studies in the year 2000, graduating a Master’s in Software Engineering and Digital Health Informatics.
Together with Ms. Dorothy Ogega, Vincent founded TeleAfya, a health awareness app that seeks to devolve healthcare access to the basic level. The mission he says is to provide healthcare especially to disadvantaged minorities, including women and children in maligned counties in the country.
But this predicament is not unique to Vincent.
How many times have you gone to the hospital and stood in line for hours and hours and at the end of it all end up getting poor service? Or no service at all? How many doctors have you seen asking for kick-backs or going for extended lunch breaks with patients dying in line?
With TeleAfya App, all this is mitigated as the most available doctor is always on duty. It’s not just the doctor choosing the patient, but you choosing the doctor as well. Patients who would normally travel for hours, sometimes in the case of referral hospitals the whole day and end up returning home without a diagnosis from the doctor, now have an easier way out.
A home to doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacies, midwives, and community health workers, TeleAfya has partnerships with transport services such as ambulances and organizations with vehicles, becoming a one-stop shop for everything health. You can almost say, a hospital in your pocket.
But you don’t need to have a smartphone to enjoy its services.
Currently in partnership with Sosit Dispensary and Kapkatet Health Center as local dispatch centers, other dispatchers are being on-boarded at the moment in Mombasa and Kilifi counties.
TeleAfya describes itself as a ‘Healthcare Digital Transformation Hub’. TeleAfya prides itself as the home of Digital Healthcare Policy Entrepreneurs who are keen on helping governments and individuals solve healthcare delivery problems that need urgent attention by setting a blueprint for health care access and delivery across Africa.
“TeleAfya is going to foster easy communication with people in mashinani. Just like M-Pesa, TeleAfya will be that account that has everything about your health. As long as you have your phone, your health is at your fingertips,” says TeleAfya Co-founder & Marketing Director Dorothy Ogega.
TeleAfya connects patients to specialized medical services that may be otherwise unavailable in their community. It also allows patients to avoid the time associated with traveling long distances in order to see a specialty service provider in-person. Additionally, patients can avoid extra visits, scheduling, and wait periods if the specialist is regularly available for TeleAfya appointments.
Medical health care providers can partner with TeleAfya, access its database of patients, and earn an extra income whilst simultaneously increasing their client base and capacity to travel around the country to tend to patients.
In this case, a nurse and clinical officer can pair up together to provide care such as routine health screenings to patients across the county without having to spend on any costs of establishing a business.
From solving his mother’s toothache problem and now setting his sights on East Africa, TeleAfya is always moving but never losing the aim of its target. ‘Making healthcare accessible to all.’
The TeleAfya App is currently available for download on Google Playstore for Android users. iPhone compatibility and the Pandemic Integrated Tracing and Testing System are currently in the testing phase with a view to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
With TeleAfya, your health is now in your hands. Literally.