How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
Our product, Afya Pap, is a patient centred platform using AI and behavioural science to provide personalized management of chronic conditions. We provide localized health education and remote monitoring using a chatbot we built via USSD/SMS for feature phones and an App for smartphones. With diabetes >10% across Africa, Dr:Patient ratios <2:10,000 and average consultations lasting <47 seconds, it’s impossible for patients to receive the guidance necessary to evoke behavioural change and successfully manage their condition. We do this through tech.Recently we have included COVID-19 related advice and education to reinforce public health policy in the 7 African nations we operate in (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Egypt and Mauritius). In addition, we have developed an autonomous triage tool available through the App and USSD across all networks. This provides actionable advice based on symptoms. Through GPRS geotagging we can identify outbreak resources and direct government/private assistance accordingly.Finally, and potentially of greatest importance, we have expanded the capability of our Ask a Dr SMS messaging service to include voice and video calls. This allows patients and physicians to schedule and instantly perform consultations while respecting nationwide stay at home orders. This is currently being piloted in Kenya and we plan to roll the service out to our 40,000 users with the aim of scaling to 500,000 over the next few weeks.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Resilience - we're improving the broader infrastructure for responding to pandemic outbreaks.,Recovery - we're positioned to support in the recovery of those directly affected.,Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a market ready product/service. I have sold to customers.
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
Dr Precious Lunga Founder and CEO: Dr Lunga Is an epidemiologist with a track record building innovative mobile health services to tackle health problems. In her previous role at Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe, she established their Health Unit and launched ‘EcoHealth Tips’ an SMS messaging platform which acquired >700,000 subscribers within 8 months and scaled the service to Lesotho and Burundi within 90 days of launch. She was also involved in coordinating the Africa business response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak. Dr Lunga was Scientific advisor at UNAIDS, implementing and managing HIV programs across Africa. She sits on the boards of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Malaria Consortium and Medical Research Council UK. She is a Yale world fellow as a result of her work in global health and has a doctorate in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge. George Franklin Co-Founder and COO: Background in finance, commodities trading and project finance with Merrill Lynch and private equity in West Africa with Iwol Capital specializing in healthcare. MBA Columbia Business School. Taurai Nyamakura – Software Architect: 10yrs experience in systems architecture, development and integration. Expertise working with front and back-end java. Has worked with other languages derived from Java such as Scala, Kotlin, Groovy, building robust and concurrent volume intensive systems. Sun Certified Java Programmer, Bachelor of Business Studies and Computing Science.
What countries do you operate in?
Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, Egypt, United Kingdom
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
No
