Telecommunications company Safaricom PLC is leveraging on telemedicine as a means to improve health security in the country.
Speaking during the East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit in Mombasa, Safaricom Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Cynthia Kropac said the company invests in systems that support digitization of healthcare systems across hospitals.
She added that the company has provided over 110,000 community health workers with locally made devices to collect patient data in the households they visit, ensuring that the data collected remains secure.
“These affordable devices are also going into the hands of people so that solutions like telemedicine, where people can get healthcare in the convenience of their homes, become important,” said Kropac.
The company expanded rural connectivity to ensure access to digital healthcare up to the grassroots level. Kropac says that beyond connectivity, the data infrastructure is the backbone of a resilient healthcare system.
She added that critical data, early detection, and early awareness were important in building a resilient and healthy economy.
“As we increase the number of hospitals that are digitized across the country and add more community health workers, we have the opportunity to increase the degree of health of our people through increased immunity, and reduction of communicable disease. Coupled with the introduction of an early detection system leveraging big data and analytics to identify emerging outbreaks, we can provide early warnings to prevent the spread of disease and contain outbreaks sooner, and drive immediate and practical improvement in healthcare delivery,” she said.
The company has invested at least sh.104 billion in the healthcare delivery services system.
In partnership with the county and national governments, Safaricom has achieved progress in initiatives such as the Kenya Integrated Health Management Information System which aims to enhance the quality, accessibility, and efficiency of healthcare services to enhance data-driven decisions.
Meanwhile, with 97% mobile coverage, Kropac said the country can also leverage the power of digital-savvy youth to create groundbreaking innovative blockchain-based health platform that provides health news, awareness campaigns, and job opportunities.
“By turning online time into productive, health-driven activities. This initiative can empower young people to take charge of their health education while creating new, meaningful careers in the digital space,” said the Safaricom Chief Enterprise Business Officer.