Tawi Digital Health

Tawi health is a digital health company with an aim to democratize health care by providing virtual care services and decentralized health records.

Tawi health is a software solution that aims to democratize healthcare in Africa .We believe healthcare is a basic right and an enabler of economic potential of individuals  and nations .We have 3 platforms ; a mobile app , a web app and android app .Our mobile app allows users to connect to doctors remotely and have virtual  consultations at the comfort of their homes .Using our software platform one can store their medical records safely .Our platform is interoperable and decentralizes medical data that currently is siloed and not shared .Using our app one can seek emergency services , get medical information to curb misinformation , donate and receive blood and order drugs and get them delivered to their door step . We have a financial wallet that allows users to credit their accounts with cash to be used on the next healthcare service visit by themselves or their loved ones. We have a USSD app that served the low income households and individuals who may not be able to afford smart phones 

We are solving the problem of lack of access to healthcare services for individuals living with chronic and non- communicable diseases .Kenya is facing a double barren of communicable and non-communicable diseases that is putting pressure on the overstretched healthcare system .This challenge is wide spread in the country , according to the Non communicable disease strategy by the Ministry of health in Kenya the prevalence of diabetes in adults is estimated to be 4.56%amounting to almost 750,00 persons aand 20,000 annual deaths ,the annual incidence of cancer is close to 37,000 new cases with an annual mortality of over 28,000 ; levels of Hypertension are 21.4% among adults in rural Kenya. The role of infectious agents in development and progression of non-communicable diseases either on their own or in combination with genetic and environmental influences has been increasingly recognized in recent years.Other factors such poor infrastructure ,lack of primary care services ,stigma associated with various disease, poor lifestyle and unhealthy diets and obesity , Tobacco use ,Inadequate physical activity ,lack of health financing . Consequences include driving middle income households to poverty due to high healthcare costs , loss of loved ones ,reduced human resource and poor quality of life .

Our target population are individuals living with chronic illnesses in urban and rural areas .These individuals have to travel to and from hospitals constantly for checkups and to get drugs .They also have to measure their vitals and track their medical records.Cost of travel is high some travelling across the country to seek services in the capital city , Nairobi .The currentmethod of storing medical data is pen and paper , some patients even lose their files in hospitals leading to delayed care services .This data is not shared and some pateients even lose track of it .This makes it hard for patients when they visit new hospitals .This data has to be taken again or is lost completely from previous institutions .Our solution enables users to contact doctors remotely removing the need to travel to hospital , users can record their medical data on our platform and even seek emergency services . We plan to partner with Equity Afia that provides low cost consultation to make our services affordable ,furthermore partnership with insurance providers so as to subsidize the service.Users can order drugs from the app and get them delivered to their doorstep

I am a medical student , everyday I interact with potential users and elicit their needs through clerking . As a team we have interviewed our target group and used surveys and questionnaires for the general public to get insights on the problem. We have engaged a couple of individuals with chronic and non communicable diseases in crafting the solution. We have these individuals in a whatsapp focus group that we use to  test , validate our assumptions and clarify the problem we are solving

We started this project in September 24th 2021 .Since then I have built a team with diverse skills .As a team we have conducted user interviews clarified the problem statement and started innovating the solution. To build the solution , I have used my own money to bootstrap including funds won from various pitching competitions including Techstars global startup weekend .We have build a minimum viable product ,the challenge now is sourcing funds to scale our infrastructure so as to launch the product to the market .

We are using Kotlin to power our android app ,For the backend we are using Go , Web app uses React .

We targeting 3,000,000 users by next year

Reduce morbidity and mortality by 5% in Kenya

Reduce congestion in hospitals

Increase the standards of living of low and middle income households in Kenya by reducing health expenditure

Reduce incidence of chronic and non-communicable diseases

Informed communities that are equipped to better drive  better health outcomes

We will use documents and reports shared by ministry of health to measure impact on morbidity and mortality

We will partner with hospitals and do monthly evaluations on certain metrics auch as crowding and how its improved

We will survey individuals living with chronic illness on health expenditure and quality of life

Through interviews we can measure the level of awareness on health information within target communities

Regulations by the Kenyan government that are costly .We would require in houe expertise in certain fields such as legal , finance ,marketing ,psychology and anthropology to better serve our customers .We would require funding of $300,000 after which we can use revenues to grow the company .Kenya is  going into an election period and we would expect disruption

Within the team we have 3 medics with a vast experience in the medical field 7 software engineers, 1 medical researcher , 2 designers and a pharmacist. My cofounder Kennedy Otieno is a full stack engineer with experience  building health sytem for last mile services in South Africa .In the year 2020 I designed and built a software tool to assist frontline healthcare workers to collect data . I double up in software engineering , which am studying at Holberton school and Medicine at The University of Nairobi. I am living with a chronic illness and  came up with the solution after facing a challenge seeking care services .I have worked with community health volunteers including doing their tasks in the year 2020 .I saw the challenges people were having at the last mile while going door to door hence our solution is uniquely placed to address the challenge.The team has great synergy and creativity , it has won various competitions . 

We have not yet partnered with any organization .We seek to partner with Telkom providers to ensure the internet and network infrastructure is reliable , Insurance companies and National Health Insurance Fund to subsidize the care services , Hospitals to make available the vast pool of doctors , Emergency services including Red cross to aid in the emergency services  and pharmacies to provide drugs

In Kenya through our research we found out that women take the leading role in guiding the health of a family .Men have less compliance to healthcare and are least likely to go to hospital unlike women .Our innovation includes medical information for special groups including lactating mothers , adolescents , expectant mothers and young women .We also include charts and services such as menses tracker .In addition we provided information on nutrition to guide the special groups on their diet