Category: e-Health
Don’t travel without activating your COVID Vaccination Card’s QR Code
That COVID vaccination card QR Code oversight has come to bite Zimbabweans according to a report by NewsDay which said that port authorities in South Africa and Kenya were calling them fake after scanning the code and getting an error. “I faced difficulties crossing the border when I travelled to Kenya. The authorities said they […]
Two Zim startups partner to provide Digital Identity in Healthcare for millions in Africa
Algorand powered local blockchain startup FlexID (FlexFinTx) has extended its Self Sovereign Identity platform to the healthcare industry in what the company says is a world-first real-world use case scenario in partnership with Ubuntu Clinics. The former is a Zimbabwean founded firm that is also registered in Singapore with operations in Africa and Southeast Asia […]
The Digital Health Symposium is Back!
After a hiatus, the Zimbabwe Medical Association ZIMA is hosting a Digital Health Symposium on the 19th of March as a sequel to the eHealth symposium that was last held in 2019. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was the reason for the break in continuity. Interestingly, the pandemic is also the major reason why the […]
Zim e-health startups! Check out this Africa-wide accelerator
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has announced that applications are open for the AUDA-NEPAD Home Grown Solutions (HGS) Accelerator for e-health or health-focused startups. The accelerator programme focusing on growth and mature stage African healthcare companies, conceptualized in response to […]
Local startup makes it easy to find medicine/ drugs and compare prices from your phone
Have you ever zipped around town looking for a drug that seems to have been made up by the doctor? It is quite frustrating having to visit pharmacy after pharmacy looking for medicine and finding empty shelves, especially when there is a bedridden patient in desperate need of the drugs. Enter the MIS The Medical […]
Zim Startups! CIMAS & Impact Hub have a US$1,000 Healthathon
CIMAS in collaboration with Impact Hub Harare is hosting a hackathon dubbed “CIMAS Healthathon 2021” over the course of 3 days, 1 – 3 December 2021. The hackathon seeks to foster collaboration on innovative solutions which can be employed by CIMAS to effectively deliver their services to their clients and members through the use of […]
The QR codes in COVID vaccination cards are apparently useless
In something that isn’t all too surprising because Zimbabwe is a dumpster fire, the QR code in your COVID-19 vaccination card when scanned will give you a “QR Code Not Found” error. We tried it on our end and were baffled as to why this is because the QR was the much-touted security feature that […]
COVID vaccine cards are being stolen bringing doubt to the nation’s statistics
According to a report by the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI), COVID vaccine cards are being stolen at healthcare facilities. The report cites poor civil servant pay and those who don’t want to get vaccinated as being the market for the stolen cards. “Theft of Covid-19 vaccination cards at vaccination centres as reported in mainstream media […]
Local startup set to launch digital COVID-19 vaccination passport in November
Despite the QR code upgrade made to the COVID-19 vaccination cards, there has yet to be a digital version of the document. This is also compounded by the problem that we also don’t have a digital contact tracing platform. Well, a local startup called Hiclicker is looking to change that as it has announced that […]
Zimbabwe finally launches a more secure COVID vaccination passport
A couple of weeks ago I railed at the fact that Zimbabweans were being issued COVID-19 vaccination passports with a handwritten card whenever they took up the government’s vaccination offer. Well, it seems the government has finally delivered on their promise to make more secure verified computerised COVID-19 vaccination cards/passports. According to state-owned ZBC, the […]
Local startup creates platform connecting patients and healthcare providers
‘Please don’t be dead,’ is a terrific album by Fantastic Negrito. He must have borrowed the title from Zimbabwean mothers telling their children, ‘Please don’t be sick/ill.’ Not only is finding the funds to seek attention a challenge, locating the healthcare practitioner is a chore, especially when it’s a specialist you seek. A new local […]
Apple is pushing its workers to get vaccinated for COVID-19
Last week the Zimbabwean government announced that it was now mandatory for Civil Servants to be vaccinated. There was an outcry from some quarters about this but it seems it’s the global trend. A lot of employers in Zimbabwe are also pushing their workers to get vaccinated. We have companies like TelOne where vaccination rates […]
The government says it’s mandatory for Civil Servants to be vaccinated
The Zimbabwean government recently announced that it was mandatory for all those employed by the Public Service Commission (PSC), civil servants, to be vaccinated. Prior to this vaccinations were encouraged but not mandatory. However, certain public corporations among them TelOne already had policies that more or less made it mandatory for their workers to be […]
The Zimbabwean government needs to computerise COVID records to curb fraud
What makes me sad about the way the Zimbabwean government conducts its affairs is how easy and cheap solutions are ignored for the unwieldy. 90% of Zimbabwe’s administration problems could be solved by a computer and the internet. Recently I pointed out how cheap plastic licences could be the solution to the current crippling backlog […]
Africa CDC online COVID-19 results verification platform launches in Zim
Zimbabwe has adopted the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (Africa CDC) Trusted Travel Platform which allows for online certificate verification based on the Global Haven system. The initiative is meant to combat the slew of fake COVID-19 results certificates that are being created and assures that whoever is being let in at a […]
President Mnangagwa extends COVID lockdown by another fortnight
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has extended the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown by another two weeks. He cited that although infections have decreased over the last two weeks the number of deaths remains high. President Mnangagwa also said the following: “Several countries globally and regionally are beginning to experience the fourth wave. Quite worrisome to us are […]
Tech and Covid 19: The nexus of digital mental health
Just a few days after widespread festivities, celebrating the new year in 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and soon after the virus quickly brought the world to its knees. In the beginning, most of us felt we would […]
Doc Online, a local WhatsApp chatbot that gets you in touch with medical professionals
Medical services have not been left behind in the rush to digital that has been brought on by the COVID -19 pandemic. Just this week we saw Cassava Smartech’s Maisha Health launch medical insurance registration via USSD to add on to the medical tips and advice the service was already offering. In line with this […]
Cassava’s Maisha Health launches USSD medical aid registration
Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe’s medical or health insurance division Maisha Health Fund has announced a new service that will allow anyone to register for medical aid via USSD. Anyone who needs medical cover can now find options through Maisha Health’s *147# USSD. The main motivation behind this is to increase the digital channels to those that […]
Opportunities presented by Zimbabwe’s rollout of a National Electronic Health Record system
Since February 2015, the Ministry of Health and Child Care with help of funding partners has been designing, developing, and testing an electronic health record (EHR) system, named “Impilo”. This is meant to reduce the current burden of paper data collection for health workers and ultimately improve the quality of care in public health facilities. […]
The govt is again asking for exemption letters, technology would have made this a smoother process
Despite the government not explicitly admitting it, Zimbabwe is in the throes of a third wave. Ever since the month began, the country has been recording thousands of cases daily, with hundreds of cases coming from each town. Faced with such a spike, the government has now decided to go back to a well-tried and […]
Meet Dawa Health the startup fighting to reduce maternal mortality
Late last week the Telecel Group and Startupbootcamp Afritech announced the finalists for its Africa wide accelerator. Among the chosen few is a Zimbabwean startup called Dawa Health, which offers antenatal care to expecting parents. Their field of interest is especially important because pregnancy-related deaths are caused by insufficient antenatal care. According to the World […]
Dial-A-Med, a mobile app delivering meds to your doorstep
Dial-A-Med is the newest player in the on-demand retail pharmaceutical business that is on the rise due to the pandemic.
Applications are now open for online digital health accelerator
The Next Health Accelerator is looking for startups with solutions in the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) sector.
Review of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare – 5 things to note
Review of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare enteprise solution, 5 things to note for any institution looking to make it part of its healthcare delivery system.
Distributing the COVID-19 vaccine in Zimbabwe is going to be a nightmare
There are a number of variables that are going make distributing the 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses around Zimbabwe an absolute nightmare.
Zim A.I COVID-19 diagnostic system takes 2nd place at INAT Tech-a-thon
James Murombo and Pardon Mukoyi’s COVID-19 A.I based X-Ray diagnostic system placed 2nd at the 9th INAT Tech-a-thon
Zim duo working on AI based COVID-19 diagnostic system
Zim duo of Pardon Mukoyi and James Murombo are working on a CADx and AI based COVID-19 diagnostic system that uses X-Ray images.
5 things to include in Zimbabwe’s next 5-year digital health strategy
The Ministry of Health and Child Care is currently working on a digital health strategy. Here are 5 things that should be included in it.
Sasai adds Africa CDC Travel Pass COVID-19 feature
With regional and international travel now open, travellers need to abide by the COVID-19 protocols of various destinations. Depending on the destination there are a number of other health requirements (such as vaccinations) that each country seeks to grant entry on top of a COVID-19 test. In an effort to make the process of crossing […]