ClinicOP

Our concept of connected healthcare

Three years ago, my friend Isabella fell sick and was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with a type 2 diabetes condition. The doctor prescribed medicine for her condition which were very expensive from the pharmacy, she had to buy them as she had no choice. As she was taking these drugs;; her condition worsened and I recommended that she should visit another doctor, upon the doctor probing; he realised she was reacting negatively to the drugs that were initially prescribed to her due to an allergy. It was also at that point that the doctor discovered the drugs were of low quality. The new doctor prescribed different drugs which she bought from a different pharmacy, the drugs were more affordable and she began to feel better. This scenario happens to a lot of people who fall sick like Isabella, which often leads to frustrated patients and doctors. This is because both the patient and the doctor have not been empowered by information whereas; 1)A Digital health wallet for the patient is crucial, 2) Critical information about the patient that is available to the doctor at the point of care should be accesible, 3) Information on certified clinics, pharmacies and other related healthcare organisations near the patient should be available through the mobile phone and other internet enabled devices.

Access to medical information especially touching on pricing of healthcare services and prescription medicine has been closely guarded by players in the healthcare and pharmaceutical domain. This has been entrenched through opaque pricing mechanisms that hinder access to this information. This information asymmetry has been working to the benefit of healthcare players who continue to charge premiums for basic services and huge mark-ups on essential prescription medicine. This is the source of motivation that has prompted the development of Clinic-OP which collates information from different players and aggregates them in one platform to boost transparency for the benefit of the public.

Clinic-OP aims to connect the key players in the healthcare ecosystem in the country and whilst at it, facilitate free flow of crucial health related information and improve access to real time pricing of vital healthcare services for the benefit of the public. This will greatly improve transparency in the pricing of healthcare services, pharmaceutical products and better management of health records. All these factors will significantly improve the general patient experience while navigating the corridors of healthcare. This will ultimately reduce the cost of healthcare.

Clinic-OP aims to attain the foregoing objective by deploying the Clinic-OP platform in clinics, labs and pharmacies. This will create an incentive for transparency among sector players as the public becomes aware and actively begins to leverage on pricing information to drive healthcare choices. Technology is a progressive tool which has been successfully employed in the transformation of numerous spheres resulting in the automation of processes and more output. The healthcare sector in Africa has been rather slow in assimilating technology in its domain despite its evident benefits. Clinic-OP is designed to rectify this situation by employing technology to improve access to the pricing of medicine and related healthcare services. This is aimed at injecting transparency in the opaque healthcare pricing structures in the country and while doing so, empower the public to make more informed choices in the consumption of healthcare products and services.

Clinic-OP will use text messaging as the core communication channel to deliver real time customized pricing information to the public. Text message was settled on as the optimal route to reach the widest population base given the high mobile penetration rate and its ability to reach even those without smart devices and internet connectivity. The development of Clinic-OP has coincided with a favourable business environment with conditions to support its growth: rising healthcare costs, roll-out of universal healthcare coverage, burgeoning middle class and high mobile phone penetration.

Clinic-OP is a cloud based software hence a healthcare facility requires log-in details only to log-in, unlocking a rich world of critical medical information and insights. This cuts the CapEx associated with the acquisition and setting up of serves and other hardware related components associated with traditional computing approaches.

AuthPrescript is an appendage (add-on) of Clinic-OP which can be embedded on Clinic-OP but also has the capacity to function as a stand-alone product. AuthPrescript is a digital prescription generator, i.e. once a qualified medical practitioner arrives at a solid diagnosis of a patient’s ailment after a thorough medical examination, the doctor can then record the diagnosis on AuthPrescript for future reference. The doctor has an option to either write the prescription long-hand (conventional approach) or just generate the prescription using AuthPrescript and share with the patient (using digital channels such as e-mail (modern approach). This not only cuts the cost of paper, it also ensures the patient and the doctor both benefit from a credible medical database for future reference in terms of tracking medical histories of patients.

Soko la dawa is an e-commerce platform that enables the public to browse, compare prices and purchase medicine online. It stocks a very comprehensive collection of common over the counter drugs as well as specialist medicine for rare conditions. This platform allows the public to familiarize themselves with medicine, its prices and uses – since it offers a brief description of each drug sold. The biggest benefit advanced by Soko la dawa is price competition since different vendors (pharmacies) have an incentive to offer best prices to the public to maximize their sales. This fits well in the vision intended by Clinic-OP of improving access to the prices of critical healthcare services.

This triple package is geared towards creating a seamless integrated healthcare experience for the benefit of patients, healthcare providers and society at large by improving the access to information – as a scarce commodity in the current fragmented healthcare system in the country. As adage goes, knowledge is power and information is the modern age currency – having the informational advantage unlocks a vast universe of opportunities – one being affordable access to quality healthcare at an affordable cost for the well-being of all!

We built ClinicOP in collaboration with doctors who informed us of the challenges that they face. It was mostly possible because of our active research and development. It was not easy to get this information as most doctors have a very schedule. We also had challenges with finances but we kept going with the little savings we have.

I have learnt that software products are not built in a vacuum, it takes a lot of collaboration with stakeholders, and most importantly listening with the third eye!!

ClinicOP is looking at a brighter future where we are looking to scale our operations, we are listening to the market and making necessary improvements. ClinicOP will be able to provide government agencies with critical information to help in planning and disease control.