Mobihealth: making video medical consultation easy at cheap rate
Exclusive Interview with CEO, MobiHealth
Dr. Funmi Adewara, a Cambridge University trained bioscience entrepreneur speaks with AgroNigeria on the consequence of health and safety for farmstead productivity.
Please introduce yourself and tell us what MobiHealth is about
My name is Dr Funmi Adewara, I am a UK based Physician of Nigerian heritage and a Cambridge University trained bioscience entrepreneur. I am the founder and CEO of Mobihealth International.
Mobihealth is a Telemedicine provider registered in the UK and Nigeria, the first of its kind, fully integrated telehealth platform in Africa. We are a revolutionary telemedicine platform on a mission to provide people in Africa access to quality medical care at low cost leveraging technology.
Our intervention will improve the time to diagnosis and treatment, reduce hospital congestion by more than 60%, reduce the cost of treatment significantly and save many lives. Our low cost subscription plans starts from as low as N2000/month and covers patients healthcare cost for the whole year without further co-pay required.
Mobihealth consult platform allows users to speak to a board certified doctor and specialists within minutes for video consultation and other services. It is a one stop platform for a user’s healthcare need. Users can connect with a doctor in the US, UK, Germany, Israel, Nigeria or other countries on their electronic device. They can get diagnosed safely from the comfort of their home, anywhere & anytime. If they require further evaluation and treatment we will refer them to our local partners-best in class- for further care. We have local partners including reputable diagnostic centres, pharmacies, hospitals and logistic firms. Our services include:
● Online Video Consultation
● Diagnostics
● E –Prescription
● Referrals to specialist
● Follow up
● Home Health
● Home delivery of medications
● Health Education resources; Primary and Secondary Prevention.
● Management of Chronic Patients.
Farmers generally do not take health investments seriously? What do you propose to change this state of affairs?
There needs to be more enlightenment campaigns to make them see the benefit. Only a healthy farmer can increase productivity and increase their profitability. Our integrated telemedicine platform is very easy to use, farmers can see a doctor anytime and from anywhere. This will significantly change the current dismal narrative of healthcare in Nigeria because of the quality, low cost and the convenience of access it gives to more than 100k highly skilled doctors from all over the world, across all specialities and fluent in many languages. The platform will remove the waiting period that they currently face to see a qualified doctor, and will reduce long hospital queues which result in delays in diagnosis and treatment.
In Nigeria, most health care centres are distant from the operational base of farmers. In what ways can the government work with the private sector to ensure that health care facilities are closer to farm clusters?
Mobihealth health is currently planning to set up 24/7 Telehealth clinics in rural areas where most farmlands/farmers operate. The clinics will be equipped with the most advanced peripheral devices for physical examinations, will have state of the art diagnostic tools and essential drugs to serve people in these communities. Farmers will have easy access to quality healthcare in a cost and time effective way that will reduce interruption to their work.
The farmers association and government can partner with Mobihealth to ensure we have centres spread around the community catering to the entire population.
What improvements can the synergy between farming and the health sector accord Nigeria’s agriculture?
The growth of any company or any sector depends on their workforce’s physical and mental well being and this is especially true for the farming sector. Our platform will bring quality care to the lives of farmers, which is not only affordable but is available 24/7 from the comfort of the user’s home or anywhere of their choice. The information and data that we will gather from the community will help Nigeria’s agriculture industry plan better and design programs that will help improve productivity bottom line and ROI enormously. We will be able to help the industry improve the health of the farmers community by predicting disease patterns, highlighting diseases which can have negative impact on productivity and help them manage and prevent these conditions.
Hitherto, there has been little or no on-farm awareness and sensitization on farm health and safety practices, as well as their impact on productivity. How can health practitioners partner with agricultural extension agents to address this challenge?
Health education, primary and secondary prevention and community outreach programs to create health awareness amongst our clients is a pivotal part of our vision as an integrated healthcare provider. Our platform will have forums where the farmers can communicate with doctors, ask about prevention and management of transferable diseases and any other health education that they need. Our health education tool will be tailored to communities needs, and will give guidance on primary and secondary prevention of conditions, latest information and awareness to our users. Through our platform, the users will have access to unlimited health blogs, health discussions on various conditions and their prevention and forums where they can ask for help regarding the best safety practices.
We will plan regular health outreach programs in local languages where we will have qualified doctors and nurses who will educate the community in the health and safety measures for prevention of diseases, give awareness on the importance of health and its impact on an individuals productivity. We can partner with agricultural organisations so the outreach programs can be targeted to address the needs of the community.
Our Telehealth clinics will also serve as educational and awareness centers where we can give advice to farmers so they can improve their health and help them in adapting safety measures.
Considering the low income earnings of Nigerian farmers, smallholders in particular, in what ways can health and safety interventions be affordable?
We have affordable healthcare packages from as low as N2000/month on annual contract basis and it is all inclusive for the family without further out of pocket contributions when they fall ill. We have flexible payment options so that they can pay according to their financial situation.
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