Following its March debut, plans are already in place to add new functions and tools to the Kena Health app, including making it available in more than one language.
So says Pheello Maboea, CTO of Kena Health, in an interview with ITWeb about some of the new features in the pipeline for the healthcare app.
With studies showing that only 16.4% of South Africans are members of medical aid schemes, the Kena Health app aims to improve access to quality healthcare by lowering cost.
For R160 per consultation – with three free consults upon registration – the app offers on-demand and scheduled consultations with nurses, general practitioners and mental health professionals.
Users can access a range of healthcare services, including medical advice, diagnoses, prescriptions, sick notes and referrals to a specialist through their smartphone. However, prescriptions for schedule five meds are not provided, as the law does not allow for these to be prescribed without physical evaluation, explains Maboea.
The CTO says Kena Health is looking to introduce tools to allow people to manage their own healthcare conditions over a period of time.
“We should be able to track some health outcomes based on the consultations that you've had with us, so you can see your medical history and how you are improving health-wise over time. We should be able to provide you with tools that can read your blood pressure, for example.
“We want to add an e-commerce attribute to it, so that if you get a prescription, we can dispense it to you and get it delivered to you.
“There's also a couple of options around specific content related to specific conditions that we need to provide…these are some of the things we are looking to do.”
The healthcare app’s name is derived from the Sesotho word ‘kena’, which means come in or to enter, symbolising what the platform tries to achieve, comments Maboea.
The main goal is to reach many people in SA and potentially across Africa, he states. “We have the same issue around access to quality healthcare. We're trying to make sure we are reaching a population that definitely needs this service, which is the bulk of South Africans that don't have medical aid and need access to quality healthcare.
“We see ourselves as an entryway to a bigger healthcare system and everybody is welcome.”
Maboea indicates there’s only an English version of the app at the moment, but there are a couple of languages Kena is looking to add in the near future. “We’re considering Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho.”
The Kena Health app was founded by health tech company Healthforce, which already has a telemedicine platform available at Dis-Chem and Medicare.
Working with Swedish partners, Maboea explains Kena started working on building the app around July last year and officially launched it in March.
He says the motivation to develop the app is the result of founder and CEO Saul Kornik having recognised the limited healthcare access, especially for people in rural areas. Kornik, according to Maboea, figured he could bridge that gap by using technology.
“The idea is that most of the cases that people travel long distance for can actually be resolved using a telemedicine approach. Before a cough turns into an infection or into pneumonia, if you treat the cough first, then you are able to prevent that person needing to get a higher level of care.”
After a user has downloaded the app, they chat briefly to Linda, Kena's digital assistant, who collects general information about their condition, which forms part of the secure patient record.
Once the data is captured in the healthcare system, the app then connects the user directly to one of Kena’s healthcare providers, which includes four mental health practitioners, four nurses and three doctors.
Consultations can be conducted via text, voice or video within the app. In instances where a doctor is required, the nurses can transfer the call within the Kena team.
Some of the health conditions that patients can receive consultations for include family planning advice, gastritis, anaemia, allergies, UTIs and common colds. In addition, mental health issues can be treated by professionals operating in that space, with the occasional necessary referral to a doctor.
Maboea states: “We want to be the entryway into healthcare which meets you at the point and with the specialty that you need at the time and at the cost that you can afford.
“The main idea is to make sure you don't spend too much that you neglect your healthcare and then after that it becomes a bigger thing that costs you in the long-term.”
Patients can pay for a consultation via credit and cheque card payments. Kena Health is also looking at a couple of other options, such as vouchers or pay-as-you-go methods, or layby options like Payflex.
“We’re looking at a variety of payment options that should support the demographic that we’re trying to target,” Maboea notes. “With the demographic we’re targeting, we’re looking way beyond credit and cheque card payments.
“There are a couple of options around using one’s airtime or buying a physical voucher, and we’re also looking at who we can partner with to turn the cash in your pocket into credit on the app.”
At time of the interview, the CTO revealed the healthcare app had over 7 000 downloads and just over 2 000 consultations.
The Kena Health app is available for download from the App Store and Google Play Store.
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