Nigerian telemedicine start-up opens new opportunity to improve access to healthcare
she runs one of the fastest growing and quality health care services is the ultimate healthtech startups in Africa. goal.Thishaspromptedrecruitmentofhighly Listening to Dr. Temitope Farombi qualified staff not only with high training but also gives confidence and reassurance to good experience as well.
Dr. Farombi, a neurology specialist is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Online Health Company Limited, based in Ibadan in central Nigeria, the third largest city in the West African country.
O’Health Nigeria, as it is popularly known, was launched in 2020 to leverage on the role of non- physician providers in Nigeria, where there is a doctor-patient ratio of 1:6000, using telemedicine to improve access to the healthcare system. “Virtual consultation has eliminated location barrier, reduced self-medication and irregular medicalcheck-upwherepatientscannowreport early signs of or any health concerns,” says Dr. Farombi.
“O’Health Odoctor” is a telemedicine app developed by O’Health, that bridges the gap between health consultants and healthcare seekers, bringing both parties together on-air for effective health delivery.
As one of the fastest growing startups in Africa, O’Health has seen itself grow to employ seven members of staff, put up one hospital, installed five laboratories, three pharmacies and two HMOs.
Having been started in early 2021, in only eighteen months of existence, the company has so managed to handle 35,000 consultations across 28 specialties with over 11,000 subscribers in its database. The company has over 130 doctors. “We have also expanded our reach by signing deals with two HMOs to serve over 150,000 of their enrollees,” she adds.
Professionalism is key in the company’s code of ethics, where provision of high standards and quality health care services is the ultimate goal. This has prompted recruitment of highly qualified staff not only with high training but also good experience as well.
Strong team with huge ambition
Dr. Farombi, who is the team leader at the start- up, is a graduate of the University of Ibadan in MD, FMCP (Neurology). She also trained in internal medicine at the University College Hospital (UCH) and Neurology at UCH Ibadan Nigeria.
She then proceeded to Kings College London where she obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical Neuroscience. Temitope is a consultant Neurologist at the Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Center University College Hospital, the first Geriatric Center in West Africa sub-region. She was a visiting scholar to the Northwestern University Chicago, USA and Haceteppe University, Ankara Turkey.
She is also an international keynote speaker on many issues of chronic neurological diseases in the elderly. She is a member of many learned societies including Movement Disorder Society and the Nigerian Society of Neurological Sciences. She happens to be a regular presenter at conferences and has published articles in scientific journals. She sits on a number of local and international institutions.
Dr. Farombi enjoys playing golf in her spare time. She is the Former Lady Captain of the prestigious Ibadan Golf Club (IGC).
The HR department of O’Health is led by Oluwadamilola Adelaja (Dami), a graduate of the Olabisi Onabanjo University in Microbiology and a Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan in 2019. She has also attended many training courses and programs in Business Administration including at the Tekedia Institute, Boston USA and a training on leadership and heath management at the University of Washington in 2019.
Prior to joining Online Health Company, Damilola was a program officer for the Heartsmiles Emotional Care Foundation and also worked as a Research Officer in the study project for Patent and Proprietary Medicine vendors. Their clients included The World Bank, among others.
ICT, which is the backbone of the company is headed by Femi, a graduate of Federal University of Technology, Akure. He holds a degree Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Femi joined Online Health Company having had stints at WhottDev as an IT manager, Euphil Computer Institute as an instructor and at UltraBrain Computer Institute of Technology as a PCB designer and an IT instructor.
The other key member of the team is Femi, who is the Chief Technology Officer. Femi has attended several trainings as a certified developer, some of which include Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices (ICND1), CCNA, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Ethical Hacking (Cyber Security), Diploma in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript (Web Development) and Python.
Having put together this strong team, Dr. Farombi are focused on delivering on their ambitious goals of providing easy accessibility to health care services and thus making people live a fuller and healthier life in Nigeria – and in future, the rest of Africa.
Technology at the core
Dr. Farombi notes that the company has a strong DNA and technology that make it stand out not only in Nigeria but in Africa at large, as a result of its pay-as-you-go service.
She reiterates that other than the one-off or subscription model, the affordability of healthcare services on its platform allows a patient to consult any specialist of their choice with approximately US$5 per consultation. “We have over 130 doctors, which cuts across 28 specialties that ranges from dentists, ophthalmologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, ENT surgeons, orthopedic and trauma surgeons, neurologists, nephrologists among other specialties,” explains Dr. Temitope.
Besides, O’Health has started a B2C operation in which it focuses on combing the grassroots areas in the country, where accessing health care services has been a daunting challenge. It has engaged the services of marketers, who in turn engaged customers one-to-one, enabling them to consult doctors with their smart phones seamlessly.
However, the company’s 18-month journey has not been without setbacks. One of the challenges has been lack of smart phones among people to access doctors online. O’Health resolved this by setting up telemedicine centers in rural areas to enable people without smart phones to consult doctors. This was achieved when the company decided to train agents who man the centers.
She adds that to enable them meet their goals, the company’s investment priorities in the past year have been towards strengthening its technology and infrastructure as well as employing experienced staff in key areas of growth to provide seamless access to its services – thereby positioning itself as a one-stop shop for healthcare needs through the application seamless technological services. “We are on the path to filling the gap and reducing the effect of lack access to healthcare, as well as strategic partnerships across the countries.”
We have over 130 doctors, which cuts
across 28 specialties that ranges from dentists, ophthalmologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, ENT surgeons, orthopedic and trauma surgeons, neurologists, nephrologists among other specialtiesDr Temitope Farombi – Founder and CEO, O’HEALTH
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A sustainable future
Currently, the company offers primarily teleconsultation, online pharmacy, e-insurance, laboratory bookings, electronic medical record (EMR) and preventive health package for men and women.
In the next five years, Dr. Farombi informs us that they look forward to expand O’Health services into other west and east Africa countries. O’Health currently serves the Nigerian market of over 200 million people and looks forward to spreading its wings across Africa, a market of about 1.5 billion people in the next five years.
The telemedicine company is seeking new ways to adopt various methods to meet the raising need for more sustainable business operations and a better cleaner planet. It is gradually getting to automate its services and also adapt to the post COVID-19 way of doing business to expand its reach.
The company has managed to organize and attend outreach activities in the country, where we its staff give free health talks, conduct basic health checkups on the spot and provide on-site consultation with its doctor on the ground at little or no cost. For those who need further evaluation the company schedules consultation time for them at an affordable cost and also provide an e-insurance platform for them to enroll. By doing this, the company has contributed to improving the health of the local communities, which translates to personal and economic growth for Nigeria.
Due to its focus and implementation of an elaborate healthcare plan, O’Health has received various accolades for its unique and devotional way of doing things. Among the awards is The Global Start-up Ecosystem Award as well as the Future Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which was bestowed upon Dr. Farombi.
The company’s key priority areas over the next five years include building and strengthening its technological infrastructure for a wide usage, increasing its reach to rural environments where there is little or no internet facility, as well as expanding into the emergency response care. Once these ambitious goals are achieved, it will seek further expansion out into other countries in Africa.
As far as potential sources of funding for future growth are concerned, the company is considering taking Government investment/funding and Angel investment. She reiterates that as a growing innovator in the healthcare sector, O’Health has potential to diversify and reach the unreached through advanced services and technologies, adding that it also has potential to change the healthcare system through advocacy, awareness creation and engagement with policy makers for enactment of the right regulations that will lead to better healthcare indices in Nigeria for its growing population.
With the likes young, tech-savvy start-ups like O’Health, African countries stand to gain economically as a result of improved and affordable healthcare, thereby going a long way to realizing the Universal Health Coverage, which is gaining traction across the Continent.
This feature appeared in the June 2022 issue of Healthcare Middle East & Africa. You can read this and the entire magazine HERE
