Firm bets on telemedicine to reach needy patients

A doctor attends to a patient. Most health sector professionals avoid remote areas. FILE 

By Sandra Chao

In Summary

• Dr Emily Obwaka’s Afya Telemedicine platform could see the country overcome impediments to achieving quality healthcare for all.

Access to healthcare has been a challenge to many Kenyans, particularly those in remote areas which do not attract specialised doctors.

It is not uncommon to see people travelling for long distances to access quality healthcare, spending a lot of time and money in the process.

To help solve this problem, Dr Emily Obwaka, a medic, has made advocating for the use of telemedicine in both public and private hospitals her mission.

“While practising in different areas of the country over the years, I realised that the poorest people were the least favoured when it came to healthcare since most specialised doctors like cardiologists and radiologists are found in large towns or outside the country,” she said.

For her, just as devolution is a response to counties that have been forgotten over the years, telemedicine is the answer to inaccessible quality healthcare.

Dactari Health Ltd, the company Dr Obwaka works for, has developed an application called Afya Telemedicine which could see the country overcome impediments to achieving quality healthcare for all.

Future of medicine

“Telemedicine is the future of medicine because it provides you with access to quality healthcare at a distance with the use of video conferencing and peripheral diagnostic tools that a doctor would normally use in person,” she explained.

If installed in several clinics, the Afya Telemedicine application allows them to interlink with one another and share limited human resource, making consulting doctors easily accessible.

A hospital or clinic in which the application is installed requires to make an initial investment in teleconferencing facilities and simple equipment that can help to digitally relay information and diagnostic tests to a medic from a distance.

A nurse or community health worker, trained to handle the equipment, can measure blood pressure, sugar levels, carry out x-rays and electrocardiograms as well as other vital readings and send them to a doctor electronically.

“It is not just about feeding patients’ records into the system and relaying them to the consulting doctor in real-time, the doctor is able to see if there are any physical symptoms through video conferencing, ask more personal questions and make an immediate diagnosis,” said Dr Obwaka.

The system, she said, is simple to use. People without prior technological knowledge can learn to use it within a week of training.

Because the company does not have health facilities of its own, it partners with hospitals and medical associations who use the application to offer better care to patients.

“We have our database of specialised doctors within the country and some who consult for us in India, they cover all ranges of medicine from cardiologists to oncologists. Hospitals are free to connect with their own doctors because all they need is a web camera and internet connection,” she said.