Digital Health enterprise -The Medical Concierge Group- launched in 2018 its solution to address the problems of the remoteness of health facilities, long waiting lines, low doctor-to-patient ratios, and the lack of access to credible health information. Called Rocket Health, the service is the fruit of a collaboration between Dr. Davis Musinguzi, Dr. John Mark Bwanika, Dr. William Lubega, and Dr. Hope Achiro. It is accessible 24/7 via USSD and SMS on basic mobile phones, WhatsApp, or directly online on smartphones, tablets, or computers.

“The doctor-patient ratio in Uganda now stands at one to twenty-five thousand. That means so many people cannot access quality health care, and it’s not only the doctors. The pharmacists and the pharmacy services or the laboratory services are also really difficult for most people to come by. And if they do, there are long waiting lines in the traditional settings,” said Hope Fortunate Achiro, Director of pharmacy services at Rocket Health.

Rocket Health’s users can get teleconsultation with doctors, contact a medical team for home lab samples, have medications delivered, and have children vaccinated, among other things. They can also, through the call center, get support on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues or access an e-shop where they can buy and have delivered products such as condoms, emergency contraception, HIV self-tests, etc. The services are delivered in a private and confidential environment.

Rocket Health is currently available in Kampala. The solution recently received six months of incubation in 2021 at the Next Health Accelerator (NHA) -a health innovation accelerator designed by Intrepid Entrepreneurs for African entrepreneurs- and a $15,000 seed fund. Its promoters want to expand across the country, starting with Greater Kampala, then enter Kenya and Nigeria, where the service already has a registered legal presence. Rocket Health has won several awards, including  Uganda's 2021 Start-up of the Year and 2021 Best Health Startup of the Year at the Kampala Innovation Week. The event was organized in partnership with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

Ruben Tchounyabe

In South Africa where it was created and launched, more than 1,000 people have joined the app in the past six years and it is gaining much interest in other countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Botswana.

Created in 2013 – by Bruce Wood and William Mellor – and launched in 2014, OurHood is a website and mobile app that fosters communication between people living in the same vicinity or neighborhood in South Africa. “We took the best of Facebook and WhatsApp and created OurHood. There are examples of this working elsewhere in the world. It’s never been done here and we thought this is the best opportunity to create something for South Africans,” said Wood, MD of OurHood.

Available on Play Store for free, OurHood has four tabs. The "General Information" tab allows users to share information about the community or neighborhood; "Alerts" enables them to note a safety issue or any other important information. "Events" houses all scheduled events, and "Business" identifies and locates businesses within or near the neighborhood.

There are other (paid) features such as a "directory" which provides access to the contacts of all small business owners listed in the neighborhood, i.e. electricians, plumbers, cleaners, newspaper delivery people, etc. Another feature also lets users directly contact a security agency.

“The way the system works is it feeds off Google. It starts with your physical address, it finds you within that ‘geofence’ that we’ve created. Then to join, you need to get verified,” Wood explained. Thus, no one can register on the app and join a neighborhood without providing proof that they live there. Each user's identity is verified after uploading a utility bill picture, required during the registration process.

OurHood focuses on urban areas, particularly Cape Town and Johannesburg, which have the largest percentage of users. The startup reveals that the app already has about 1,000 neighborhoods in its database and receives five new neighborhood requests per day. The requests are not only coming from South Africa but other countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Botswana.

Ruben Tchounyabe