• Afya Rekod, through a secure central platform (Rekod.com), will enable patients and medical professionals to have real-time access to their health data and medical history
• A report released in 2015 indicated that around 12 million instances of patient misdiagnosis occur annually in the USA, a country with a well-developed healthcare sector
• Kamara built an AI platform that would track health data, aimed at bridging the gap between health care and treatment, anywhere, anytime for patients, medical professionals, providers and organisations.

Kenyan-based AfyaRekod, the first-ever blockchain-based healthcare solution, has launched a fully automated Universal Patient Portal (UPP). This is a block-chain driven technology that will transform the face of patient care across Africa and the world at large.

Afya Rekod, through a secure central platform (Rekod.com), will enable patients and their medical professionals to have real-time access to health data and medical history not only ensuring effective ongoing medical management but also providing timely information in case of an emergency.

The conceptualization of Afya Rekod

AfyaRekod was founded in 2019 as an Adanian Lab start-up with seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia. John Kamara, the CEO of Adanian Labs,  saw first-hand how the lack of medical records and static data could lead to poor medical management. Kamara refers to his friend who died after receiving the wrong medical intervention in an emergency.

Consequently, Kamara built an AI platform that would track health data, aimed at bridging the gap between health care and treatment, anywhere, anytime for patients, medical professionals, providers and organisations.

Medical records are a vital tool in managing health, notifying healthcare professionals of medications, chronic illness, past problems and procedures and ultimately allowing them to determine the most accurate course of treatment. Misdiagnosis is a serious misstep and can lead to a delay in treatment of the real condition.

An IOM report released in 2015 indicated that around 12 million instances of patient misdiagnosis occur annually in the USA, a country with a well-developed healthcare sector. Misdiagnosis is preventable, but only if health records are accurate, and mobile.

“We identified the capture and storage of accurate data across every possible level of infrastructure as a core problem. Bringing real-time access to data was the solution. Our tool now allows patients to create a portal with all their health data and most importantly gives patients sovereign rights of ownership of their data. The patient logs in and sees all the information from the hospital. They don’t have to ask the hospital or beg for information. It’s their right to have access to it”, said Kamara.

The Coronavirus pandemic has pressed the fast-forward button, attracting urgency to health data accessibility and analytics. This is a global problem that has been successfully addressed by patient-centred health care innovations such as AfyaRekod.

Afya Rekod Universal Patient Portal

The subscription-driven Universal Patient Portal is a blockchain-driven, consolidated and mobile data health passport, that allows patients consistent access to their health records, as well as access to a marketplace of various health services within the ecosystem in real-time.

Over and above patients securely managing their health records, including prescriptions and hospital visit summaries, the AfyaRekod Universal Patient Portal offers a secure, decentralised, multilingual and intelligent telehealth solution, health resources, symptom trackers, reminders and notifications, as well as the mobility of the record across multiple channels and devices.  Though any patient can use these tools, it is especially useful for patients with chronic illness, parents, pregnant women, and patients with hereditary diseases.

The AfyaRekod platform extends to include doctors, offering a digital clinic with a B2B platform, tele-pharmacy tool and e-prescription platform.  For providers, the platform has multiple functionalities such as hospital management, patient management, knowledge management and inventory management, as well as an AI-driven reporting tool, that allows organisations to make strategic decisions, predications and early identification using data analytics. NGOs and other related organizations can register and manage their target groups on the platform.

AfyaRekod is Part of the NVIDIA AI program via AICE Africa and has over 150,000 users in Kenya alone and is launching in Nigeria, SA, and Zambia in July. AfyaRekod is accessed via an app (android and iOS) and web portal via rekod.com

AfyaRekod’s key partnerships include The Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK), Healthy Mind Foundation(Nigeria), Alchemy (South Africa), AURA (South Africa), GE Healthcare, Telkom, The Africa Block-Chain Center, The AI Center of Excellence,  Adanian Labs, and Lishe Living among others.

Currently, in their B2B product, AfyaRekod has onboarded over 50 hospitals

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