Congo Medika in Kinshasa

The initiative is aimed at resolving the following problems: frequency of deaths due to preventable causes, poor quality of medical services in hospitals, lack of knowledge amongst the Congolese population on primary health care, failure to screen for and monitor chronic diseases, and circulation of counterfeit medicines (40% in the DRC). More precisely:

• the recurring problem of poor patient orientation causes continued high morbidity with a high associated mortality rate (good information and good orientation must facilitate relations between doctor and patient);
• poor-quality medicines are circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (nearly 40%);
• the lack of knowledge of medical information by the vast majority of the population is an obstacle to reducing the morbidity of several medical conditions.

The Congo Medika medical platform offers the Congolese population the opportunity to benefit from home health care at an affordable price within a maximum time frame (1 hour maximum). The service is currently available in Kinshasa, with plans to bring the same experience to other provinces and neighbouring countries.

A medical application (available on Google Playstore) allows requests to be made for health care at home from a multidisciplinary medical team, depending on the health problem identified. The medical team includes 140 health professionals: 110 doctors, 20 nurses, 6 laboratory technicians and 4 physiotherapists. The final objective is to assign a family doctor to each family. Each Congo Medika healthcare professional is provided with a personalised identity card, a medical uniform bearing the Congo Medika logo, and a medical kit (including equipment for taking vital signs and emergency medicines).

Before providing home care, the medical team determines whether the patient has a life-threatening health problem. When a life-threatening emergency has been dismissed, home care may be recommended for the patient’s well-being. Home care does not present a major risk, but it is important to identify contamination risk levels for those around the patient and his/her environment.

Congo Medika is available on Google Playstore. The app offers three services:

1. home care services, with the emphasis on vulnerable people (elderly people, children, women) or those with Alzheimer’s Disease;
2. home delivery of medicines;
3. health advice: promoting health and making it an everyday subject by means of a blog and medical videos containing medical information that is credible and accessible to all.

This is the first Congolese digital health application to offer this type of service (home health care provision). It was selected from among the 100 Congolese innovations during the Master Class of Innovation and Invention organised in 2019 jointly by the Ministries of Industry, Scientific Research and Innovation.

Congo Medika carries out follow-up after the health professional provides the service, in order to ensure that the patient makes good clinical progress.

The application ensures the that medicine purchases can be traced. Before placing an order for medicine, the patient must identify him/herself and provide the basis for the purchase being made. For certain medicines, billing is based on prescription only; the customer must send a photo of the prescription with the doctor’s stamp. Following an analysis, the process of ordering the medication is triggered by a mobile payment and delivery is made by courier, ensuring delivery to the indicated location.