Leveraging the power of digital technology to reach every user with quality primary health care services
Digital technologies are now ubiquitous, and the world’s population has never been more connected. Innovation is occurring on an unprecedented scale, particularly in the digital sphere. Nonetheless, its application to improving population health remains largely untapped, and there is enormous potential for using digital health solutions, especially in the context of emerging markets in the developing nations. HealthX Africa, a player in the virtual healthcare landscape in Kenya is one of the private sector companies in the country that has set out to address the disparity in access in low-income and underserved communities by leveraging the power of digital technologies and health. Healthcare Africa Magazine indulges Mr. Qaizer Manji, the CEO of HealthX Africa to get more insights into the nitty-gritty details of how the HealthX virtual clinic technology system works.
24/7 access to HealthX services from virtual clinics
Through HealthX’s integrated digital health platform, patients can have 24/7 access to qualified and licensed healthcare professionals with extensive experience in primary care and patient management who are permanently employed by the company. Besides the round-the-clock unlimited access to medical doctors, people can access HealthX Africa’s highly trained and licensed in-house nutritionists, clinical psychologists, and referral for specialist consultation and secondary or tertiary care as employees, or as individuals and their families. These professionals are available to assist people in preventing or managing specific health conditions. An affordable subscription fee is however required to access the company’s services anchored on a subscription model with patients having access to medical consultations via video or voice calls, as well as live chat for a slow as Ksh. 290 per month. Patients, healthcare institutions, and corporate organizations pay a subscription fee to access the virtual clinic services either by employers as part of their employee benefits package, insurance, or directly by the consumers.
Based in Village Market in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, the HealthX’s virtual clinic services are designed to revolutionize the patient experience and improve touchpoints that build patient and physician loyalty with each engagement. Since its inception here in Kenya, HealthX Africa’s Virtual Clinics are being rolled out in corporate buildings, factories, and schools to provide virtual medical services in spaces that bring people together. Apart from the aforementioned settings, HealthX virtual clinic is also well-suited to industries, schools and universities, residential compounds, pharmacies, commercial locations, construction sites, and underserved communities. As Mr. Manji reveals, so far, the company has managed to bring in only one virtual clinic equipment into the country, something that he agrees has been a major challenge in the roll out process of the virtual clinic. However, Mr. Manji believes that the company “has crossed that hurdle and are now kind of ready to roll it out.”
The virtual clinic is operated by a nurse and comes with up to nine Bluetooth-enabled medical devices such as a blood pressure machine, stethoscope, weighing machine, glucometer, pulse oximetry and thermometer, and the entire machine integrated to Health X system. In a nutshell, HealthX system is a bi-directional, integrated, and interactive mobile application akin to Uber that gives the user instant access to a cutting-edge Physician Control Center. In explaining how the HealthX system works, Mr. Manji says: “It’s a platform you as a doctor could be sitting at Nairobi Hospital, Kenyatta Hospital, or Karen Hospital. You come on to the platform as a patient, and wants to speak to a doctor, you would come on to the platform and the platform will connect the two of you. Just the way Uber works.”
The Uber model of operation however presents the issue of lack of continuity in healthcare provision and Mr. Manji is apt to explain how the company deals with it. He says: “So how we’re doing things differently …we have our own doctors who are trained by us to operate based on our guidelines and so we can control the service delivery.” Secondly, he points out that each of their patients has their own medical record. So, if a patient calls in today and they connect to any of HealthX’s doctors on duty who will be able to make his recommendations accordingly depending on the details of the patient’s medical history.
The demand for the integrated HealthX virtual clinic machine is there, and it is only a matter of time before the company adequately meets this high demand. “We’ve seen a lot of demand from corporates, schools as well as those who want this at their premises,” Mr Manji said. He explains further that the virtual clinic “works really well when a corporate has an onsite clinic and you have a nurse. This is a great thing to supplement because the nurse can only handle up to a certain level.”
HealthX’s virtual clinic not only supplements the nurses’ effort when the number of patients is overwhelming, but it also significantly reduces time wastage. This kind of clinic would save people from traveling to hospitals and taking many hours back. Mr. Manji explains how this can be. After triaging and there is need to be referred to a doctor, “that employee or student doesn’t have to travel five kilometers to see a doctor. They just go into the next room. They hit a button and they connect straight to the doctor.” In terms of its uses, Mr. Manji reveals that they have implemented the HealthX machine at corporate offices. It can be used in schools and universities. It could be implemented in kind of underserved remote areas.
Partnerships
The HealthX Africa is a collaborative organization made up of health care experts who are dedicated to building long-term relationships between patients and providers. Its headquarter in Kenya is conveniently located in the heart of a unique health care ecosystem and is geographically accessible to service any market in the country. Accordingly, Health X has managed to foster collaborative working relations with a number of learning institutions as well as corporate organizations. Mr. Qaizer divulged that they “work with a lot of corporates and schools, universities that come to us” and these entities “can subscribe their members on retail subscriptions as low as Ksh.495 a month.” Alternatively, there is the option of annual subscription for which the subscriber can pay for the year in advance for less than 290 shillings a month, guaranteeing unlimited access to the virtual care clinic. However, the company charges a small fee extra for implementing the virtual clinic at your actual premises.
Health X also uses technology to provide home health care and wellness services, collaborating with partner pharmacies and diagnostic companies to arrange for medication delivery and at-home lab testing. The digital hospital that was created last year has partnered with a few pharmacies in the country like GoodLife and MyDawa to arrange for delivery high-quality medicine to its clients. It has also partnered with diagnostic companies like Path Care, Lancet, and Ilara Health to conduct at-home lab testing in line with its core pillar of maintaining quality service provision. The partnerships HealthX has forged so far are purely based on meritocracy because they have the conviction that its partner organizations are “delivering high quality medication and the patient is still receiving the best of the best,” according to the virtual health clinic’s CEO Mr. Qaizer Manji.
The digital health debutant in Kenya has also partnered with financial service providers such as Power, a fintech startup that aims to help workers across Africa take control over their financial well being and relieve finance-related stress. For any emergency conditions, Health X has collaborated with Rescue, an emergency ambulance service to send patients directly to a hospital.
Significant milestones in just over 5 months since its inception
Mr. Manji reveals that the digital hospital, which opened last year, currently employs twenty-three people. Out of the twenty-three, thirteen are healthcare staff, doctors, including a family medicine specialist, clinical and community nutritionists as wellness advisors, and a clinical psychologist to help with stress and mental health. Besides the HealthX prides itself in having just over 3000 active subscribers, a significant milestone that it managed to hit just within 5 months since it started its operations in the county. Furthermore, the number is growing quite rapidly and this number is projected to exceed 30,000 within the next 3 to 4 months. In terms of subscribers’ distribution Mr. Manji revealed that a majority of subscribers on the HealthX digital platform are based in Nairobi with about 10% of the subscribers based in Mombasa. Others are spread as far as Lamu and Baringo. Despite a majority of the subscribers being concentrated in Nairobi, the digital healthcare company is actively trying to expand across Kenya quite quickly to reach the marginalized regions of the country like Turkana, where CEO believes their services are needed more than anything.
HealthX’s virtual clinic not only supplements the nurses’ effort when the number of patients is overwhelming or for more complicated cases, but it also significantly reduces time wastage
Mr. Qaizer Manji- CEO, HealthX Africa
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Speaking to Healthcare Africa, HealthX Africa CEO Qaizer Manji stated that there has been a positive shift in healthcare innovation, which he believes is due to necessity, such as the one presented by Covid-19, increased digital connectivity, a greater willingness by providers to re-invent their modes of service provision, and regulatory changes that have enabled innovation in the provision of quality virtual healthcare services. He believes that “COVID definitely helped because prior to COVID, there was nothing like a virtual medical service.” He also stated that HealthX is licensed as a level two clinic, and should a patient require further assessment, he or she can visit the physical clinic on an appointment basis if “it’s deemed necessary by the doctors.”
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many consumers to embrace telehealth services at a faster rate than predicted in the previous decade. By and large, it is Mr. Manji’s conviction that the pandemic played a key role in fast-tracking its operationalization in the region since it was during that period that it managed to get a virtual medical license, which then set the company in motion to deliver on its primary mandate.
Convenience sees more people embrace digital health
Many people nowadays own a smartphone or have internet access. This allows them to virtually meet their doctor or other medical professionals without having to physically visit health facilities. Even though they are geographically separated, they can communicate with their doctor via video call. With HealthX, patients their customers have unlimited and immediate access to any of their medical team members. According to the CEO, “You can call our toll-free number and it will connect you to one of our doctors within 20 seconds. Or you can use our mobile app to do a video call or a live chat with one of our doctors.” Essentially, the company’s digital health technology, which virtually transports the patient to the doctor’s or healthcare practitioner’s consulting room renders distance irrelevant. This is aided by advancement in technology and accessibility of internet and Smartphones. Mr. Manji quotes the American Medical Association, which states that up to 70 percent of non-life-threatening conditions could be resolved by speaking to a doctor over the phone. He further points out that 80% of doctors’ diagnoses are actually based on the questions that they ask the patients and not on the vitals. One of the things that the digital health company has done is to ensure that its doctors are at the forefront of everything that it does. This approach has translated into customer comfort that they can actually be treated over the phone or via video call. However, a lot still needs to happen going forward and Mr. Manji believes “there is a bit of kind of mindset change that will need to happen over time” as telemedicine becomes a mainstay mode of treatment in the developing nations.
Mr. Manji reiterates that that utilizing telehealth services will help to reduce congestion in healthcare facilities lower costs for patients and give users access to educational healthcare content to help prevent diseases, which in the long term will contribute to a healthier population. He contends that telemedicine is here to stay and it will serve a great deal in relieving pressure from hospitals. Fortunately, medical visits can be reduced when telemedicine services are used through video conferencing or other virtual technologies. According to Mr. Manji, hospitals should be left for emergencies and operations. By and large he thinks that leveraging “technology will enable access,” citing a hypothetical example of the person sitting in Turkana being able to access a doctor that’s in Nairobi.
A doctor for every Kenyan in the next 5 years
The digital health company is planning to expand to other parts of Kenya and the East African region, mainly targeting regions that are marginalized in terms of accessing quality and affordable healthcare services such as Turkana. The company carries the vision of having a doctor for every Kenyan. In line with this vision Mr. Manji has an ambitious plan in the next five years of ensuring that the company will be “at least 75% of the way there,” he says. This translates, at least 75% of Kenyan population. Though currently HealthX is funded privately Mr. Manji says they plan to increase geographical coverage in Kenya, expand its base in the East African region and grow the footprint of the virtual clinics in the region. Mr. Manji is bullish that in the next five years from now, he relishes “having at least a thousand virtual clinics across Kenya.” The third area of expansion is increasing the number of doctors that the company employs, and healthcare staff that the company employs to meet the demand in virtual healthcare space. He also points out that as the company intends to grow its financial muscle through seeking partnerships with “external strategic investors to help us achieve our vision and our mission.”
HealthX continues to work toward its vision having one doctor for every Kenyan in the digital healthcare space by leveraging the to deliver on high quality, affordable and accessible primary healthcare. It is also working to improve the quality of its offering cost-effective and affordable health care services with the intention of being able to reach the underserved remote areas without clinics, corporates, schools universities and construction sites. In the fullness of time, the digital health company will be able to live up to its vision and mission and people will hopefully see the benefit of what it is doing. Mr. Manji echoes his hope of seeing more uptake of the HealthX digital heath technology in the country.
This feature appeared in the June 2022 issue of Healthcare Middle East & Africa. You can read this and the entire magazine HERE
