Safaricom Partners with Nakuru County to Pilot Mobile Health Records System

Safaricom has partnered with Nakuru County to improve health services for over 100,000 people through an integrated electronic medical records program named Afya Moja.

Afya Moja, a simple, mobile based digital health passport  receives and securely stores patient information allowing users to access a copy of their own health information and  sharing 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.

The platform has been created by a consortium of partners including Safaricom, Savannah Informatics Limited and IntelliSOFT Consulting Limited.