An app to help improve local healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa

The challenge?

Founded in 2007, the Virtual Doctors is a charity that supports frontline healthcare workers in rural Zambia and Malawi. They use a simple smartphone with a preloaded app to connect rural health centres where there are no doctors, with volunteer Doctors based predominantly in the UK. 

The volunteer doctors offer advice to diagnose conditions, treat patients, and prescribe medicine. This empowers rural health workers and helps to save lives. The Virtual Doctors service also helps to reduce the number of hospital referrals that would mean long, arduous journeys and often unmanageable expenses for very poor patients.

The organisation relies heavily on technology to facilitate communication between clinical officers in remote locations and the Virtual Doctors. However, the existing app used by Virtual Doctors was outdated, buggy, and not built to scale. It struggled with offline functionality, which is crucial since clinical officers often work in areas with limited or no internet access. 

The challenges with the existing app were:

The Virtual Doctors approached 3 Sided Cube to develop a scalable, efficient solution that would work reliably offline, streamline the case logging process, and enhance the overall user experience for both clinical officers and virtual doctors. 

Their North Star is to help improve local primary healthcare in some of the most remote and impoverished areas of sub-Saharan Africa, and we were thrilled to get to work and help them do just that!

The results?

The solution was deployed successfully as a pilot phase, with v1 built and in use to gather feedback and data for a full launch version. The app is currently being used by real users, providing a more efficient and reliable means for clinical officers to manage cases in remote areas and significantly enhancing their ability to deliver medical advice and support. This pilot phase allows the team to learn and make necessary adjustments, ensuring the app will ultimately save lives and provide the best possible support to clinical officers and their patients.

The project is still in progress, with plans for further scaling and additional functionalities such as resource management and educational tools.

 So stay tuned for more impact from the Virtual Doctors!