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 encounter—demographic profile, history, symptoms, tests, diagnosis and treatment—and 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.