Homabay County Pioneers Telemedicine in Western Kenya

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit a rural health facility in Homabay County located at the shores of Lake Victoria at Sindo Beach.

The facility, Sindo Sub-County Hospital is home to state-of-the-art telemedicine equipment sponsored by the telecommunication giant Safaricom through their M-PESA Foundation, in collaboration with the Gertrude’s Children Hospital, as the health experts.

The program dubbed Daktari Smart will improve access to high-quality healthcare for children in rural and underserved areas in the country by leveraging technology and providing treatment to 32,400 children in Homabay, and other three counties over a period of 3 years. 

According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, the doctor to patient ratio currently stands at about one doctor for every 6,355 people which leads to difficulties in getting access to a qualified medical professional. This ratio increases when it comes to specialists. The participating counties in the program either have one or no paediatrician to treat children.

Daktari Smart kit compromises electronic medical devices such as the Electronic Stethoscope, Vital Signs Monitor, Derma scope Camera, Ultrasound Machine, Otoscope (for examining the condition of the ear canal and eardrum) and the electrocardiogram (ECG) used to check the heart’s rhythm and electrical activity.

Unlike the conventional video conferencing, Daktari Smart allows the health care worker at the local partner health facilities, to place the electronic medical devices such as a stethoscope or vital signs monitor on the patient. The specialist at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital is then able to see the patient and hear the sounds in real-time without the interpretation from the health worker at the local facility. This was even well demonstrated to us with a school pupil who was due for a medical checkup in the day.

The medical superintendent at the facility – Dr Brian Akwom, was able to initiate telecommunication through a video link to the health expert – Dr Eman Mohammed at Gertrude’s via the computer, installed with the requisite software and allied equipment for checking on the vitals of the patient.

Dr Akwom says that the county suffers from a very low patient-to-doctor ratio, and this telemedicine project will help bridge the need and the gap for the local population.

Even help them save funds and time if they were to proceed to Kisumu, Homabay town, or whenever, to seek advance medical care. The centre now has been serving patients from the surrounding counties, and they have also received a patient from across the border in Tanzania.

In the whole of Homabay County, there’s just one paediatrician to provide pediatric care service to the whole children population. This shows how the gap is big, and how this telemedicine project will play a major role in bridging the inadequacy.

So far, a total of 18 patients have been able to receive expert medical help and diagnosis to help them deal with the various medical issues they could be having, and the need continues to grow, apart from the challenges of electricity and internet service outages that could be beyond their immediate control.

M-PESA Foundation has committed over KShs 168 million towards the initiative while Gertrude’s Hospital Foundation will invest over KShs 35 million in the next 3 years.

What are the advantages?

• Demonstrate the use of technology in far to reach areas to improve healthcare.
• Optimize the capacity and reach of healthcare delivery systems by helping bridge the gap of access to healthcare services in Homabay.
• Address the delays in receiving adequate healthcare in rural and underserved areas through telemedicine.
• Patients who would otherwise have to spend a significant amount of time and money to travel long distances to urban areas to seek tertiary care would receive specialist care from the local health facility.

The Telemedicine program is also available in Lamu, Samburu, Baringo Counties, with an aim to reduce the number of referrals of sick children by allowing county health facilities to have access to specialists.