11 Jul 2013

Find out more about Zidi, the mHealth application winner of the Top App award at East Africa Com 2013


For the first year East Africa Com held an App Gig, dedicated to local app developers wanting to learn more and exchange ideas on developing, promoting and monetising apps in the region. The session included the Top App  competition: a chance for local developers to showcase their apps to the audience. Here the winner - Zidi - shares more information on the concept of its mHealth app.






ZiDi is the first mobile enterprise health management solution for Africa. ZiDi is offered as a cloud-based software service by MicroClinic Technologies, a Nairobi-based company.  ZiDi runs on web-enabled devices, preferably android tablets, in online and offline modes to ensure health workers have 24/7 access to patient data even in the most remote rural health settings.  ZiDi has been successfully beta tested in Kenya and its database currently grows by 1,000 patient records monthly.
 
Nurses equipped with ZiDi perform one task, i.e., document each patient encounterdemographic profile, history, symptoms, tests, diagnosis and treatmentand ZiDi does the rest.  ZiDi’s streamlined point-and-click closed loop data entry and storage structure guarantees a reliable system that will foster accountability for quality of care, commodities, finances and human capital in health centers & dispensaries in low-income countries.

Key components in ZiDi include:
a)       Electronic medical records (or electronic health record):  health workers can document patient encounters in real-time. ZiDi archives the longitudinal electronic record of an individual patient’s health information that can be easily retrieved for future decision-making and treatment;

b)      TeleHealth (including telemedicine): Cases in ZiDi can be reviewed retrospectively and in real time.  Experts can then advise the health workers on difficult cases from a virtual location;

c)       mHealth (or health through the use of mobile devices): Health workers equipped with ZiDi can send specific text messages or forward generic messages to patients using the tablets. ;

d)      eLearning (including distance education or learning): ZiDi enables gaps in health delivery to be identified.  Custom training videos can therefore be provided to the health workers.  The ZiDi enabled tablets can also be used for patient education and information sharing;

e)       Reporting (including utilization rates, inventory, and finances): ZiDi autogenerates reports on service utilization.  The inventory management module analyzes the turnover of drugs, vaccines and supplies and generates an order sheet with forecasts for the next 90 days.  ZiDi also reports on income from services provided and by payment sources, including from vouchers.

f)        Standardization and interoperability: Data collected in ZiDi can be exported as an Excel file for efficient and accurate offline analytics.  The inventory management module uses the WHO classification of essential drugs and supplies. ZiDi ensures that the integrated management of health systems from the national down to the facility level is seamless.

ZiDi provides rights-based access to national, county, district and facility level data through an administrative portal. Health officials, program officers and researchers are guaranteed secure, real-time access to actionable data on disease trends, inventory, fees, and human resource productivity.  Donor organizations can monitor and evaluate health programs from the convenience of their offices.
 
ZiDi is a disruptive innovation with significant benefits for pharmaceutical and telecom partners. By automating quantification, forecasting and access to essential drugs, pharmaceutical partners will for the first time have access to current information on the market demand for drugs and medical devices in Africa.  Offering continuing medical education to the thousands of health workers in Africa, of which there are close to 75,000 in Kenya alone, will drive data use and benefit the telecom partners.  Implementation of ZiDi in Kenya for example, where there are close to 7,500 public and private clinics, could generate upwards of 150,000 health records daily and consume 1,2 million hours of data per month.  Mobile carriers, tablet manufacturers, satellite and data management network providers alike, can thus benefit from these growth opportunities.

Dr. Moka Lantum, managing partner, MicroClinic Technologies foresees e-health content surpassing social medial and adult content in the not too distant future as solutions like ZiDi penetrate Africa. “It’s an unprecedented opportunity for mobile carriers as revenues from voice decline,” he said.
 
East Africa Com will return to Nairobi on 20-21 May 2014, with another App Gig session supporting local app developers.

10 Jul 2013

Speaker Interview with Bayo Puddicombe

bayo_puddicombe
Bayo Puddicombe is the Co-Founder of Pledge 51. 
The Com World Series team caught up with Bayo ahead of the NigeriaCom conference and exhibition, taking place at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria, 17-18 September to find out a bit more about his experiences and focus at the event.


Com World Series: How is your company positioned in Nigeria and what are its future objectives?

Bayo Puddicombe: We are one of the pioneer mobile game/app development companies operating in the Nigerian space. We recently launched our mobile gaming community, Chopup, which integrates all of our portfolio games and allows users to trade achievements and points between content items. 
Our primary objective is to unleash the potential of African content in the mobile gaming space.


Com World Series: What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affecting your business in the region in 2013?

 Bayo Puddicombe: In no particular order, I would say that these are the top three trends affecting the region;
- Faster data networks
- Smart phone penetration
- Mobile payment systems 
 Although, we are already seeing the emergence of fast data networks, there’s still quite a way to go in getting the most out of our data infrastructure. It would really go a long way in improving user experience for data hungry games and applications.
 Research shows that in most African countries, 2G networks will have to be supported for quite a while due to a mobile device distribution tilted more towards feature devices and dumb phones. We do know that smart phones can take full advantage of the possibilities offered by higher capacity data pipes, so as their penetration increases there will be increased consumer demand for high bandwidth and data capabilities.
 Mobile payments is also a key link in the value chain and we expect that in a before long, some of the mobile money providers will finally unlock the magic formula for enabling m-commerce in Nigeria. This could easily spurn the emergence of several innovations in the local technology space.


Com World Series: What are the remaining challenges in terms of connectivity and quality of services in the region and which technologies are most likely to resolve these issues?

Bayo Puddicombe: Connectivity and quality of service has always been a major challenge in Nigeria. The emergence of wireless data plans from mobile operators made significant impact in bridging some service to the region. However, it’s obvious that this is not sufficient to address the data needs of an emerging market of this size.
What we really need is high-speed fibre-based connectivity straight to homes, offices, businesses, etc in all major cities across the country. Until then, we cannot have the right kind of infrastructure to support this market.  


Com World Series: How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services impacting mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?

Bayo Puddicombe: Smart phone penetration is currently low possibly approaching 10% penetration maybe less. However, most of these devices readily connect to the internet via mobile operator data networks and are quite data hungry. As smart phone users gained access to higher capacity mobile data networks (3G), some have actually discarded their primary internet service providers as data speeds from the mobile networks are beginning to compare reasonably to what can be obtained from ISPs.
This trend will possibly continue as more people adopt smart phones as their primary mobile device.


Com World Series: In your opinion, which companies are spearheading innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them?

Bayo Puddicombe: Firstly, I would like to put things in context by saying that innovation is relative. What is considered mundane in developed markets could actually be quite innovative in another context. My definition of innovation is combining technology/tools from disparate fields and combining them in a way that solves significant problems. With that said, I think Sproxils is doing some fantastic things with SMS based technologies in providing drug verification services. 


Com World Series: Who are you most looking forward to meeting/hearing from and what do you hope to achieve from taking part in NigeriaCom?

Bayo Puddicombe: I think just being at NigeriaCom would give us a fantastic opportunity to meet with stakeholders across the mobile/digital landscape.


Find out more at NigeriaCom. Bayo Puddicombe will be joining a panel of speakers on Day 2 at the APPGIG at 14:30 on the session “Africa paving the way in app development: trends, challenges & monetisation”. 



NigeriaCom

Find out more at NigeriaCom. Steven Evans will be leading the session “Keynote Panel Hosted by Etisalat” on Day 1 at 10:00.

Register here