Safaricom announced a new partnership with Nakuru County in a bid to improve health services for over 100,000 people. This will be done through an integrated electronic medical records program dubbed Afya Moja.

The service involves a simple, mobile-based digital health passport that receives and securely stores patient information. It is also designed to allow users to access a copy of their own health information. They will also be able to share it with trusted health providers. Meanwhile, doctors will also get access to patient’s medical background upon consent 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.

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The program by Safaricom is meant to benefit an initial eight hospitals. This includes 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 service was created by a consortium of partners, will be rolling out in different counties in the next few months leading up to full adoption countrywide. Safaricom will be the provider of the platform allowing patients to easily check their health records straight from the phones.