Kenya’s ICT Authority has declared that ZiDi™ as a 2014 Innovation Award Winner in the Health Care Delivery sector. This application has been developed by MicroClinic Technologies with technical support from Microsoft under the 4Afrika initiative.
Cofounded in 2012 by Hoffman Moka Lantum and Mary Matu, ZiDi™ was started with the aim of tackling the administrative burdens faced by medical staff in dispensing health care at medical institutions.
“ZiDi is trying to transform and bridge the digital divide in the health sector at a very fundamental level using the opportunity technology offers in the health space. The application runs under Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud coupled with Microsoft’s productivity suite, Office 365 to channel real time secure communication between health centres in different locations, and facilitate scalable access to backed up data.” says Matu.
ZiDi™ trials are being run in 6 health centres and public dispensaries in Kiambu and Kisumu counties and the Gatundu Sub District Hospital that serves in excess of 3,000 patients monthly. ZiDi™ automates stocktaking, personnel administration, financial management and service delivery in these health centres.
ZiDi™ also consolidates data at the time of service delivery from various lines of service and all Ministry of Health programmes, such as the malaria and tuberculosis programmes, which currently rely on data collected manually on separately forms, can access their respective data in real time on-line, thus heralding new levels of efficiency and accountability in the public sector.
Microsoft Country Manager for Kenya Kunle Awosika said: “We are excited to work with MicroClinic Technologies to help revolutionize Africa’s health sector through technology to improve lives. In the World Health Report 2013, the World Health Organization called on countries to continue investing in local research in order to develop a system of universal health coverage tailored to each individual country’s situation. This is what ZiDi™ is about; relevant local innovation.”
Through local resellers and selected Microsoft partners, health centres running ZiDi™ will be able to acquire affordable smart devices including Windows smartphones and Windows tablets. The devices are powerful to run real time analyses that help medical officers determine probable diagnoses for patients by just entering a list of symptoms in the smart devices.
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Other functions offered by ZiDi™ include management of health centre charges and also administration and running of institutions. Being an integrated hospital management system, all patients visiting health institutions running ZiDi™ are guaranteed of standardised, quality health care. ZiDi™ makes it easy for medical staff to administer a similar set of process flow to all patients.
