AfyaRekod, a Kenyan-based enterprise launched a fully automated Universal Patient Portal yesterday. This is a blockchain-driven platform that will transform the face of patient care across Africa and globally.

Patients and the medical professionals treating them will have real-time access to their health data and medical history through the secure central platform. This will not only ensure effective ongoing medical management but also critical, timely information in an emergency.

Medical records are a crucial management tool for health, alerting healthcare providers about prescriptions, chronic illnesses, prior issues, and treatments, ultimately enabling them to choose the best course of treatment. Misdiagnosis can delay the treatment of the underlying condition and is a major issue. In the USA, a nation with a highly developed healthcare system, there are over 12 million cases of patient misdiagnosis each year, according to an IOM report published in 2015. Misdiagnosis can be avoided, but only if medical records are precise and portable.

Kamara witnessed firsthand how a lack of medical records and static data could result in poor medical management when a friend passed away after receiving the wrong treatment in an emergency. The upsetting occurrence inspired Kamara to create an AI platform that would track health data with the goal of bridging the gap between health care and treatment for patients, medical experts, providers, and organizations everywhere at any time.

With seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia, AfyaRekod was officially established in 2019 as an Adanian Lab start-up.

The pandemic has also pushed the fast-forward button, making health data analytics and accessibility more urgent and AfyaRekod being a patient-centered healthcare innovation, is set to tackle this global issue.

“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 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 organizations to make strategic decisions, predictions, 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. Currently, in their B2B product, AfyaRekod has onboarded over 50 hospitals.

Some of the key partnerships that the enterprise has 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.