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Onedokita Simplifies Data Access, Transaction in Nigeria Health System- Folukoya

Published

7 years ago

November 2, 2016

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An attempt to redefine Nigeria’s healthcare information management system and entrench seamless transactions is at the heart of Onedokita.com, Dr Daniel Folukoya, founder & CEO of OneDokita Healthcare Limited told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.
Onedokita is a network of healthcare providers and the patients they provide the services to, with the patients as the hub and the providers as the spokes. It connects patients to providers via its front-end mobile app and providers inter-relate via its fluid, secure back-end web network.
Bred and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, he attended Kings’ College Lagos before moving to the United Kingdom for his medical training.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge with his Medical Sciences degree and completed his clinical training at the infamous Guy’s, King’s & St Thomas’ Hospital Trust in London.
Following that, he secured a prestigious Academic Training Programme in Sheffield Teaching Hospitals prior to working in Vascular Surgery at the Outer London North West Vascular & Interventional Centre, which he has done for the past 2 years.
He is passionate about healthcare delivery systems, improving workplace efficiency and empowering individuals to take ownership of their healthcare. He spoke to peter oluka.

The Name “Onedokia”
The name ‘Onedokita’ is culled from our vision which is ‘one’, a symbol of unity. It is wholistic; encompasses everything, every segment and strata of the society. So, we are bringing such vision to ensure the Nigerian healthcare system witnesses a different approach to service delivery. I grew up in Nigeria, trained in the West and back to the country with that vision to unite the Nigerian health system.
‘Dokita’ is an interesting cliché in the country. Even guests at the Medic West Africa conference were captivated by the name. Yorubas would come and say, ‘is that not Doctor’? Igbos would lay claim to the fact ‘Dokita’ is the right pronunciation of Doctor in their language. Hausas would also find a way to include it in their language. So, that is the idea- we are all together.
That is our motto: ‘we are better when we work together’. Onedokita entails that we need to unite in solving health issues in our country. We need to look beyond self or capital interest. Majority of the Nigerian population live in the rural areas. These are the people that need the services.

Nigerian Healthcare and Availability of Reliable Data
On the course of our research, the need for reliable data in the healthcare system actually informed the innovation- Onedokita. For instance, we may want to pick up cases for treatment like Diabetes; we know people in England have such cases at different levels, because statistics are there to assist your programme. But when we are looking at the Nigerian situation, digitally, there is very little data on that. What we actually is that there are data on HIV, malaria and tuberculoses (TB). But these illnesses come and kill quickly in terms of the worst case scenario. But what happens is that as you are treating HIV, malaria and TB, the life span of each person becomes longer, however the lifestyle diseases like hypertension, if you ask anybody about the data, we do not know.

Challenges Onedokita Tends to Solve
I was reading a post on LinkedIn with part of the quotes reading ‘a good person will also be beaten by a bad system, but a good system will always help a bad person to an extent’. There are many great doctors, nurses and auxiliary healthcare professionals, passionate about their jobs; they want to help the society.
But when the system is not working for them, everyone gets frustrated. It is not just about the patients, but all the providers in the system will benefit from Onedokita.com.
We are challenging ourselves to improve our system through better collaborations, shared information and workload. Onedokita will bring ease of life to practitioners by helping to schedule doctors’ workload
In Nigeria, by the time a doctor sees over 50 patients in a day; that is a very huge number and we are not taking cognizance of the quality of service rendered. By the time the 15th person enters the run the quality of services automatically reduces. As other patients are coming, the doctor would, probably, be concerned with making sure something is written on paper for such patients to ‘feel attended to’.
The doctors are actually making a lot of sacrifices. Some times, they feel agitated by the number of patients waiting for them, because he may not be aware that such number will be visiting that day.
Therefore, we can improve the system to care more for the patient at the same time, reducing the doctor’s workload. That way, we enhance the productivity and efficiency of the service providers and everyone benefits.

How Onedokita.com Works
The platform is structured like a hub and the providers as the spokes. It connects patients to providers via its front-end mobile app and providers inter-relate via its fluid, secure back-end web network.
The patient will be able to access the services via our mobile app; doctors, healthcare facilities, pharmaceutical centres; from that, booking appointment with the doctor, demand for drugs, book for scans, or perform all the healthcare transactions rather than making physical visitation to the hospital or other facilities before you can obtain services.
These are to make life easier for people and raise the productivity level of our healthcare practitioners. We are bringing in the telephone ‘advisory’ platform as well for Frequently Asked Questions, inquires or easier connection during emergencies.
For instance, few months ago I went mount-climbing at Cape Town. I had strains in my bone but I hadn’t time to visit the healthcare facility there, but I knew I needed an x-ray. So, if I was able to call a help line or chat, through that I could have booked for x-ray.
From that contact I would have known the slot and time I have been allocated to and it is added to my profile. If I have a personal or family doctor he can take that as reference information. We even have situation where medical reports are released immediately, it helps remove encumbrances in the system.

Information Management/Data Privacy
As the saying goes, health is wealth. The same way we guide our bank account is the same way our health records need to be safe-guided.
The only access-right to that health information is the authenticated user-right. You can add your doctor on your profile; thereby giving him access to your information.
You may decide to create a group and these are people you are permitting to access the information. How will this be helpful? Health tourism is huge in Nigeria. Instead of travelling to India or Germany to supply needed information you can stay here access the facility, sharing email with them on your experiences before embarking on the journey.

Internet Connectivity and Ease Access to Data
From the front end, the mobile app, which is the interface used by the patient, we profile it for a pre-test; in that way you test-run the process. And the kind of information feed-on the platform, it does not require much megabyte of data and it is hosted on secured service. That means the backend is secured.

Target Market: Private or Public Hospitals?
Our primary target market is the private health institutions. As our vision is ‘unity’, public health providers are taken care of under the government umbrella.
Though, we may not all agree that the public sector is united as should, but there is an oversight assessment.
The private healthcare providers are the ones we want to bring into the system. For instance, the country has this new national (health) ICT framework that applies primarily to government facilities, but the private sector does not have the policy guide. The realty: it has to be financially beneficial to all parties.

Subscription Plans/Download
The patient is key. When I mention patient I actually allude to everyone. A healthy man today could be ill the next few hours.
At the moment it is a free app, downloadable in Goole App Store, but not everybody would want to download, therefore we have the web version.
Meanwhile, we are making the platform available to the providers too. Our vision remains to unite all in the ecosystem by eliminating entry barrier. So, the pricing model is low cost to encourage as many people as possible.

Sustainability Plans
Our plan is, first, to have a robust application, tested and satisfactorily customer-induced, we will then begin to scale up.
The next thing is we want to educate people on some prevalent illnesses, most times, that are treatable but people are not usually aware. We want to open the app and involve organisations in that regard. There are so many health programmes going on; if we tap into that, we will get more people involved. As these are going on more, people will adopt the platform.

Verification of Healthcare Providers
The first thing we did was to approach the Lagos State Government to obtain the list of certified healthcare practitioners.
We are going to other States as well to validate the information we have. We also engage the practitioners on face-to-face discussions. We are also working with NAFDAC to ensure it is only the certified pharmaceutical outlets.
The essential thing is that every facility that wants to enlist on our platform, we visit them, verify and documents every piece of information.
Also, there is a robust feedback mechanism on our platform. Everyone is encouraged to leverage that too.
On our side, we are working on incentives to encourage people to share their healthcare experiences. It might not be that the practitioner is quack but the method of practice might augur well with the people.

How Prepared Is the Market to Embrace Onedokita?
We are optimistic about our positioning, because Nigeria is economically in recession, but technologically we are turning a corner reaching a threshold where will ‘burst’ and expand which will trigger a turnaround in the nation’s economy. Due to our optimism we are building relationships and trusts in the market.

Innovation Summit 2016: Onedokita’s Participation
We really feel grateful to the Emerging Media and partners, the organisers of the Summit for giving us opportunity to showcase our fresh approach to healthcare in Nigeria.
Innovation is not just about new medical device, but also involves new ways/approach to doing solving the same problem or something that has never been done.
The Summit is a big opportunity to present our new ideas with regards access, infrastructure, processes, clinical governance, etc.

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Dufil Prima Foods Brings Relief to Indigent Families in Abeokuta

Published

4 hours ago

April 29, 2024

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Dufil Prima Foods, makers of Indomie instant noodles, in partnership with the Human Rights and Grassroots Development Society, extended its goodwill to the shores of Abeokuta, Ogun state, at a product distribution event on Tuesday 24 April, where cartons of Indomie noodles were distributed to the underprivileged, as part of its ongoing efforts to support families worst hit by the ongoing economic hardship.

The event which saw a thousand vulnerable families go home with a carton of Indomie each, individuals present were also provided with cooked noodles to help relieve their immediate hunger.

The outreach had in attendance members of the disabled community, orphans, widows, the elderly, pregnant women, and vulnerable families.

The outreach is in alignment with the brand’s goal to feed two million consumers across various cities and communities in Nigeria, by collaborating closely with recognized NGOs to ensure that only the most vulnerable persons in the various cities and communities are invited and given a carton of Indomie and a fresh bowl of the nourishing tasty noodles.

The event was graced with the presence of notable dignitaries including the representative of the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in Ogun State, Mrs. Wonuola Kassim; the Ogun State Chapter Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Hammeed-Bello Aderinola; a representative of the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Superintendent Adeoye Adejoke Asake; the Chairman of the Ogun State Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Venerable (Dr.) Samson Kunle Popoola, Chairman of the Peace Initiative Network, Dr. Femi Sodipo , and Trace PRO, CDR. Babatunde Akinbiyi, amongst others.

Mrs. Wonuola Kassim in her keynote address, commended the efforts of Dufil Prima Foods Ltd, and acknowledged that this was not the company’s first CSR initiative as she recalled that it had embarked on a similar venture in 2020.

“This program cannot be more timely than a time like this, when to feed becomes very difficult for most people. This is the kind of gesture which would linger for ages in the hearts of the beneficiaries. The objective of the palliative distribution is to alleviate the hardship faced by the citizens due to the recent removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government”, she said.

Speaking in the same vein, Popoola of the PCRC said: “We believe in PCRC that food security and eradication of hunger will go a long way in reducing the level of criminality in our society. What we have seen today is a conscious effort on the part of the organisers to see to the eradication of poverty, eradication of hunger and to support the food security initiative of the Government”.

Other dignitaries present also expressed their gratitude for Indomie and the organisers of the event, the Human Rights and Grassroots Development Society. They commended their efforts for taking the right steps to ensure that families across the country are catered for in these challenging times.

Indomie Instant Noodles remains steadfast in its quest to provide satisfaction and put smiles on the faces of families across Nigeria.

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Defending the foundations for connectivity

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ugo Onwuaso

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By Engr. Gbenga Adebayo

In 2001, when the first GSM call was made in Nigeria how many of us would have envisaged the digital world that we live in today? The pace of growth and the rate of adoption of telecoms solutions in Nigeria has been revolutionary. It is a globally acknowledged case study that we should be proud of and a clear demonstration of what can be achieved.

Almost all of us today are reliant on the network connectivity that it has enabled in different shapes and forms. From the simple need to communicate with loved ones, to the digital platforms that enable our access to and consumption of entertainment, financial products and other critical services. Our reliance on these systems is becoming more and more acute, whether it is citizens, governments, or corporations. System downtime is increasingly disruptive and offline manual redundancies are often in the advanced stages of being phased out. The pace of this transition is not slowing down. With the core infrastructure in place, innovation is driving the exponential growth of services that ride on it. From the fully adopted social media that has changed the way we interact, to the emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.

While this innovation is enabling exciting new possibilities, there is a tendency to focus on those opportunities, to the detriment of the core infrastructure on which it rides. It is imperative that we retain a focus on the optimisation of that infrastructure and enable continued investment in its development. We have seen how the transition from 2G, through to 3G, 4G and 5G have each enabled the development of more and more sophisticated solutions.

The continued development of core infrastructure has to be sustainable, and over the last few months we have begun to see the challenges that the operators that provide it are facing. Both MTN and Airtel have declared significant foreign exchange (FX) losses in Nigeria, and the stress is not linked to them alone. The entire ecosystem is battling with a range of challenges that must be addressed. If we fail to do so, the downstream impact on innovation will be severe. Telecoms infrastructure requires a base level of investment to maintain its current capabilities, and significant additional investment to expand and grow. It is capital intensive and that capital has to be generated through sustainable business models.

At the heart of the challenge the industry faces is the issue of rising costs. Recent financial losses are directly linked to the cost of operating towers that rely on inputs like diesel, which have increased significantly as the Naira has depreciated. The provisions large telecom companies have had to make, and the consequent losses and impact on their reserves is a red flag. It tells us that business as usual is not sustainable. If we continue as we are, then those companies will struggle to continue to invest in and maintain existing services.

But those costs are not the only challenge. General cost inflation, multiple taxation, regular and damaging vandalisation of infrastructure and the costs associated with regulatory compliance all help contribute to the high cost of operations. We cannot continue to follow a path that asks those companies to simply accept those rising costs. It is no longer sustainable, and we have reached an inflection point.

This is a critical moment for the industry. How we approach and resolve it will define the future of Nigeria’s digital economy. If you want to be able to enjoy the benefits that digitisation brings. If we want the infrastructure that enables AI and helps us drive growth, then we must take action now.

Cost-reflective tariffs, like it or not, are simply non-negotiable. We have seen the impact of price controls in other segments of the economy, like power. If providers cannot operate sustainable business models, then they stop investing. When that happens, the existing infrastructure starts to crumble. For power, a consumer can choose to take ownership of the solution by buying a generator, or a solar panel. For fuel, the government can step in as the provider of last resort and manage a subsidy regime that mitigates the impact on the population. Those options are not available in the telecoms sector. There is no self-help solution.

We fully understand and appreciate the financial stress that Nigerians are experiencing today. The cost of living is the single most significant factor in most people’s daily lives. But those people are still able to enjoy the benefits that connectivity brings, at the price they paid before these challenges became so acute. Imagine a future in which the gains of the last twenty years are reversed. Nigeria, and Nigerians simply cannot afford it. The pain that we would feel under those circumstances would be exponentially worse.

We need to find a long-term, sustainable and manageable solution to this problem. Prices will need to rise, but action needs to be taken in a measured way, through sustainable conversations and partnership with the government. It is time to address this head on.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo is the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON)

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LCCI Urges FG to Simplify Trade Procedures to Boost Economy

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1 week ago

April 22, 2024

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that the government needs to simplify and harmonize trade procedures and address bottlenecks in order to boost economic growth in the country.

President of LCCI, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, gave the charge at a Quarterly media briefing on the State of the Economy yesterday in Lagos.

He said that the government has to create an atmosphere that promotes export growth and competitiveness, which is projected to boost export earnings, raise domestic revenue, improve citizens’ welfare, and increase business productivity.

“We recommend that reforms must include simplifying and harmonizing trade procedures as well as addressing bottlenecks such as port logistics, congestion, and transportation costs. This is expected to position the country as the commercial centre of the region and a springboard into regional value chains,” he stated.

On managing the persistent high inflation, the LCCI president said both monetary and fiscal authorities should focus on the factors driving the inflation rates by tackling the supply-side deficiencies instead of focusing too much attention on the demand-side management.

“We urge the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue with its foreign exchange (forex) market reforms with intense discipline, as the high exchange rate against the naira is a major driver of the skyrocketing inflation rates.”

Idahosa acknowledged the improvement in the naira exchange rate in the last few days, moving towards the level of N1000 per dollar or lower.

“CBN needs to sustain its policy and regulatory reforms in the FX market, adopt policies that would attract more FX inflow into the economy as well as build market confidence in the performance of the FX market,” he added.

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