A new mobile application has been launched to help Kenyans in the diaspora monitor the quality of healthcare their families back home receive.
Dubbed Diaspocare, the app also enables Kenyans living and working abroad to pay their relatives’ medical bills, Business Daily reports.
Diaspocare Business Development Manager Peter Kamunyu, a former banker, told Business Daily that their aim is to enhance healthcare for Kenyans, especially the elderly whose children or relatives living abroad.
The app is the brainchild of five Kenyans living in the US, who realized they faced similar challenges when taking care of their aged parents.
“We have relatives living in remote areas that access poor healthcare and buy substandard or fake drugs from local chemists without knowing. This means their health condition worsens leading to costlier medical procedures being performed,” said Kamunyu.
Kenyans abroad can use the app to access real-time reports on the hospitals their kin visit and the type of drugs recommended to them.
Further to this, Diaspocare offers a detailed billing report to help prevent misuse of money sent for health purposes in addition to giving the actual location of a health facility near the area.
“Old people rely on younger relatives for social help and this exposes them to the risk of money being stolen or being denied a chance to receive prompt healthcare services,” said Kamunyu.
“In rural areas, public and private clinics are manned by nurses who have no ability to prescribe or treat patients and this is a serious trend that condemns chronically ill patients to more suffering and even death.”
Upon receiving an invoice, Kenyans in the diaspora can pay directly to the health facility in which their relatives were treated through a provided payment mode.
Diaspocare was successfully piloted in Nigeria and later rolled out in Ghana and now Kenya. The app operates on a subscription basis where select pharmacies, laboratories and clinics pay a premium as a subscription.
So far, Diaspocare Kenya has partnered with Goodlife and Krishna pharmacies, Equity Afia Centres, individual doctors. Equity Group is the company’s payment gateway.
Amaan Khalfan, Goodlife CEO said: “We have 63 outlets across Kenya and Uganda which enable us to deliver drugs to beneficiaries. Through the partnership, we are able to directly monitor a patient’s health and advise them accordingly.”
