Access Afya

Quite often the reach of our ideas and lifework are limited without a platform to share, catalyze and synergize their full impact. As I am newly settling into a senior role in my organization, I recognize the novelty of the opportunity on multiple fronts. If my story resonates with others, particularly those that it would ignite the impetus for action then I would consider that a necessary ripple toward solving health access. Winning the prize will help me find and amplify my voice on our mission to change the way we think about health access for the poor, to stimulate the provocation of ideas and possibilities.

The prize money would go towards positioning the company to for its next fundraise. Selecting 2 entrepreneurs & 2 new franchise clinics at cost of $60,000 gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the application of the franchise model (our operating system for affordable care) alongside our 5 acquired franchise clinics. This also gives health access to ~2000 people each month.

It will also go toward marketing our Utamu health membership - a $15 all access outpatient membership, COVID-19 response reserve to keep our team and patients safe and technology improvements on our core IP.

Core to my beliefs is everyone’s right to exist and thrive. Disparities exist and it is our collective responsibility to continuously find and correct this where it exists. 10 years ago I found myself holding a band-aid over the huge gaps in healthcare, many of which were surmountable waiting for the solution to reach my patients and me. 3 years later with little forthcoming, I decided I needed to be the one to make that change, to expand my realm of knowledge I changed paths from clinical to management.  I want to figure out how I can be a contributor to society, to use my creativity and passion to define the issues of health access and create health systems that work for people.

Today, Access Afya solves for these disparities by redesigning care from the ground up to create systems that work for patients affordably. Giving many for the first time, access to a global standard of care that is localized and inclusive. When patients thrive, their caregivers thrive, this is human nature. Access Afya wants to make this a reality for millions starting with the 11million urban poor in East Africa because they deserve to thrive.

Delivering high quality primary healthcare is a major challenge in LMICs. United Nations estimates that less than half the world’s population is covered by essential health services. In this market if you are sick your care is often unavailable unaffordable or low quality. For the 6 million in Kenyan urban informal settlements, it is nearly impossible to find dependable, quality health care. The Pharmacy and Poisons Board found 30% of the drugs in Kenya were counterfeit. Mobile clinics, program-specific monitoring fill some gaps in the system, but leave patients without a comprehensive care provider. 

According to the World Health Organization, Kenya lags behind in many of the SGD’s Key Health Indicators. Covid 19 pandemic healthcare disruptions could reverse decades of improvements. Hundreds of thousands of additional under 5 deaths are expected. Service cancellations will lead to a 100% increase in malaria deaths in Sub Saharan Africa and illnesses and deaths from communicable diseases will spike.

Emerging evidence published in the Lancet, found that more people die from low quality care rather than to no access at all. Access Afya has emerged with an innovative healthcare model, bringing all 8 SDG focused tracer interventions to the most vulnerable.

Access Afya has developed comprehensive primary healthcare model to alleviate healthcare obstacles and provide convenient, inexpensive, dependable, and quality health care for communities most at-risk. Access Afya is different in that it promotes healthcare with an integrated approach that focuses on patient outcomes, not outputs. This means making sure that sick patients feel better. Access Afya combines standardized clinical processes and digital tools to create a modern operating system for care.

These solutions have developed organically over the past 9 years as Access Afya has tested out its approach and worked with communities and providers to develop a model and processes that addresses the pain points in the healthcare system. A healthcare platform that brings together quality assurance, supply chain management, digital training academy, clinical care pathways and the patients voice.

The digital platform includes custom and off the shelf technology, Access Afya has built a data warehouse to bring these data points together and visualize them in meaningful ways. The goal of this platform is to work with the government to use Access Afya’s data and experience to support universal health coverage. This combination of services allows Access Afya's health network to optimize for health outcomes.

Nairobi's urban poor in slum communities are the direct beneficiaries of Access Afya. The slum community as a whole benefits from having a safe, reliable and affordable place for healthcare.

To date, Access Afya has conducted 251,908 patient visits with people who have accessed our 15 community-based facilities and seeing ~9000 each month. 

We are bringing care closer to people through employment creation through franchising for healthcare workers serving their communities. By 2023 we plan to have had 1million health visits through 80 sites

Women and children account for 70% of the health visits we provide this ensures healthy outcomes for children under the age of 5 and for pregnant women. Our clinics have in the last year increased access to essential ultrasound by 107% and reduced cost by 30%

Additionally, chronic care retention rates are at >80%, meaning that patients return for scheduled follow-up visits.

Our virtual clinic provides convenient access for the working poor unable to trade of a day's wages to seek care.

 Access Afya impact is toward SGD 3, providing all tracer elements for primary care and in post pandemic world builds in resilience to keep care accessible and responsive to the most vulnerable.