- AfyaRekod was founded in 2019 by John Kamara as an Adanian Lab start-up with seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia
- The platform, which has over 150,000 users in Kenya, uses block-chain driven technology and hopes to transform the face of patient care across Africa and the world
- He established the company after losing a close friend who was misdiagnosed due to lack of medical records and data that could have helped save his life
AfyaRekod, a Kenyan health start-up, has unveiled its fully automated universal patient portal that will enable patients and medical professionals to have real-time access to health data and medical history.
The platform, which has over 150,000 users in Kenya, uses block-chain driven technology and hopes to transform the face of patient care across Africa and the world.
Besides Kenya, it operates in Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon, and Zambia, with over 50 hospitals onboard its B2B product. It will ensure effective ongoing medical management while offering critical, timely information in an emergency.
Why John Kamara founded AfyaRekod
AfyaRekod was founded in 2019 by John Kamara as an Adanian Lab start-up with seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia.
He established the company after losing a close friend who was misdiagnosed due to lack of medical records and data that could have helped save his life.
Kamara noted that the solution to his friend’s death was bringing real-time access to data.
“We identified the capture and storage of accurate data across every possible level of infrastructure as a core problem. 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 the information from the hospital. They don’t have to ask the hospital or beg for information. It’s their right to have access to it,” said Kamara.
According to Kamara, AfyaRekod offers a secure decentralised, multilingual and intelligent telehealth solution, health resources, symptom trackers, reminders and notifications, as well as the mobility of the record across multiple channels and devices.
Any patient can use it, but it’s more useful for patients with chronic illnesses, parents, pregnant women, and those with hereditary diseases. The AfyaRekod platform extends to include doctors, offering a digital clinic with a B2B platform, tele-pharmacy tool and e-prescription platform.
For providers, the platform has multiple functionalities such as hospital management, patient management, knowledge management and inventory management, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) driven reporting tool that allows organisations to make strategic decisions, predications and early identification using data analytics.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other related firms can register and manage their target groups on the platform.
AfyaRekod has partnered with the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK), Healthy Mind Foundation(Nigeria), Alchemy (South Africa), AURA (South Africa), GE Healthcare, Telkom, The Africa Block-Chain Center, The AI Center of Excellence, Adamian Labs, and Lishe Living among others.
Importance of medical records
Medical records, if not properly kept, can lead to a delay in treatment of the real condition, thus leading to suffering if patients.
They are vital tools in managing health, notifying healthcare professionals of medications, chronic illness, past problems and procedures, and ultimately allowing them to determine the most accurate course of treatment.
A report released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2015 revealed that around 12 million instances of patient misdiagnosis occur annually in the United States of America (USA) despite its well-developed healthcare sector.
