Maisha Meds: POS Software

Maisha Meds

Maisha Meds: POS Software

Maisha Meds’ free Android software powers Africa’s largest digital private pharmacy network, providing real-time, last-mile healthcare data

Nairobi, Kenya

KEN

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

Private drug shops, pharmacies, and clinics are the first (and sometimes only) point of care for millions across Africa. But patients are not receiving the affordable, quality care that they need to get better due to persistent challenges: African health systems remain fragmented and under-resourced, and the majority of Africans remain uninsured and pay disproportionately out-of-pocket for healthcare. A root cause of these challenges is that last mile visibility remains notoriously low, especially in the private sector where governments, global health funders, and other organizations have not historically focused their efforts. One contributing factor is that private health facilities, particularly in remote areas, often rely on pen-and-paper processes, lacking the digital tools necessary for real-time service delivery, inventory management, and integration with public health surveillance tools. Without proper understanding and visibility into this critical service channel - considering that the private sector is estimated to provide 50% of essential health services in SSA - efforts to improve medicine availability, affordability and quality to millions of patients will continue to fall short. In particular, emergency cases such as antibiotic misuse, low-quality or counterfeit medicines will remain poorly monitored due to the lack of reliable, real-time data, contributing to the rise of AMR.

Maisha Meds has developed the largest digital network of private pharmacies and clinics across Africa. This was achieved by deploying a point-of-sale / business management software, which is now used by nearly 5,000 private health facilities across Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. This software, free to download on Google Play Store, is available to health facilities of any sector, size, location, including areas with limited electricity and internet access. Facilities record each sale transaction in the software, which currently supports more than 2 million clients every month, generating a unique dataset of last mile information. Each transaction provides information on the brand, prices and margins, manufacturer, stocks, volumes and values, and more. Since all facilities are GPS-tagged, we can also collect geographic data on where each product is sold. This solution offers visibility into key health trends across the sector. Specifically, we are able to analyze antibiotics sales volumes, patient numbers, consumption behaviors, price ranges, regional patterns, and product formats (strength/formulation). This information provides insights into market gaps and opportunities, improving supply chain management and policy-making. By bridging the data gap, we can help the private sector strengthen health delivery and improve patient outcomes.

For providers, our POS drives business sustainability: facilities see an average 24% revenue growth in the first year and 30% after two years. This growth enables providers to invest in high-quality inventory, minimize stockouts, monitor their profit and loss, and improve operational efficiency. For patients, we provide discounted and quality-assured medicines via patient reimbursement programs for malaria, women’s health, HIV and vision, operated via the POS. These programs, backed by two RCTs (source in More About Your Solution), have shown a 300-500% increase in adoption of malaria and FP products relative to baseline. In addition, our malaria and HIV programs also revealed 50-80% cost savings, and we continue working with governments and partners to redesign how health care is delivered and financed in the future. As we scale and grow our network, we expect millions of patients to benefit from affordable, high-quality care at the last mile. For decision makers, our actionable insights support the global health community and governments, by giving visibility into health patterns in the private sector, informing interventions in high-risk areas. Our findings are shaping global resistance strategies, including the WHO guidelines for antimalarial resistance, and we expect to expand our work to AMR.