Kenya-based HealthTech company AfyaRekod launched a fully automated Universal Patient Portal, built on blockchain technology.
Through a centralized platform patients and the medical professionals treating them will have real-time access to their health data and medical history not only ensuring effective ongoing medical management but critical timely access to information in an emergency.
The brainchild of CEO John Kamara, AfyaRekod was founded in 2019 as an Adanian Lab start-up with seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia. Kamara saw first-hand how the lack of medical records and static data could lead to poor medical management when a friend died having received the wrong medical intervention in an emergency.
Kamara built an AI platform that would track health data, aimed at bridging the gap between health care and treatment, anywhere, anytime for patients, medical professionals, providers, and organisations.
Medical records are a vital tool in managing health, notifying healthcare professionals of medications, chronic illnesses, past problems, and procedures and ultimately allowing them to determine the most accurate course of treatment. Misdiagnosis is serious and can lead to a delay in treatment of the real condition. An IOM report released in 2015 indicated that around 12 million instances of patient misdiagnosis occur annually in the USA, a country with a well-developed healthcare sector. Misdiagnosis is preventable, but only if health records are accurate and mobile.
“We identified the capture and storage of accurate data across every possible level of health infrastructure as a core problem. Bringing real-time access to data that captures the mobility of health records was the solution,” said Kamara.
“Our tool now allows patients to create a portal with all their health data and most importantly gives patients sovereign rights of ownership of their data. The patient logs in and sees all their information, from every healthcare provider they have interacted with. The power of patients owning their health records and having real-time access to their information is lifesaving, and it is their right to have access to it,” he added.
The subscription-driven Universal Patient Portal is a blockchain solution, with a consolidated mobile data health passport that allows patients consistent access to their health records, as well as access to a marketplace of various services within the healthcare ecosystem in real-time.
The AfyaRekod Universal Patient Portal also offers a decentralised, intelligent telehealth solution, healthcare resources, symptom trackers, reminders, and notifications, as well as the mobility of the record across multiple channels and devices.
Though any patient should use these tools, it is especially useful for patients with chronic illness, parents, pregnant women, and patients with hereditary diseases, the company says.
The health-tech company says the system has multiple functionalities such as hospital management, patient management, knowledge management, and inventory management, as well as an AI-driven reporting tool that allows organisations to make data-driven decisions, predictions, and early disease identification. NGOs and other related organizations can register and manage their beneficiary groups on the platform.
Edited by Zintle Nkohla
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