Rwanda’s Ministry of Health says a digital platform which will consolidate all healthcare services and allow patients to view their medical records online has been developed, tested and is ready to launch. The digital application called E-Ubuzima is expected to reduce time patients spend waiting to meet a doctor and get medications, an official from the Ministry told The New Times on Thursday, January 16. ALSO READ: $4 billion needed to digitalise healthcare in Rwanda and other low, middle-income countries The application, which will be made available to the public in three months, will allow a patient to schedule and an appointment with a doctor and medical staff to access the patient’s medical history, Muhammed Semakula, the head of planning, monitoring and evaluation, and health financing in the ministry, said. The new technology will increase the quality of health services in the health sector, by transitioning from a paper-based system to a digital one, he said. “The E-Ubuzima app was designed to make it easy for someone who needs health services to be able to find it by using the app,” Semakula noted. “That means that if I am to go to a health facility, I can choose which one to go to from the app. I would have an option to choose a doctor I can go and see. The hospital I pick gets notified in their system, and the doctor would see it on their calendar that there is a waiting patient.” “The app will help in reducing time wasted going to a health facility without knowing when you would see a doctor. It will also reduce the hours that most people spend at the hospital waiting for treatment,” he added. ALSO READ: Minister highlights growing importance of health posts in Rwanda “We gave ourselves three months for the application to be publicly available,” he said. The officials said patients will have full access to their information through the app. “If you go through consultation, you will see it in the app. Patients will also see the prescription in the app. It would even show laboratory results,” he said. He pointed out that traditionally, all patient documents were kept at the health facility, but with the new system, every patient would have access to their medical information. He explained the advantages E-Ubuzima would bring in terms of good service delivery. “The first advantage is that if a patient visits a health facility, their records will be traced. This can contribute to good service delivery. The medical practitioner will clearly understand the patient’s medical history because not everyone can explain their medical history to a doctor,” he said. “Sometimes patients may forget what the doctor said to them last time or forget the medicines they took last time. All these issues will be solved with this application.” Semakula also noted that patients will be notified about every payment they need to make for medical services. “The patient will be able to make payments instantly by either mobile money or any other digital payment method available,” he said. According to Semakula, a medical practitioner will have a dashboard with schedules, waiting patients, treatment guidelines, and available and accredited medicines to facilitate the work. He highlighted that the Ministry of Health will also use the platform to deliver credible information. “For example, if there is a disease outbreak like the recent Marburg virus, people would need information and they have to get it from a trusted source. This app will be one of the platforms we will use to post awareness information,” he explained. Semakula underscored that users of the app will also be able to ask questions and get answers from medical professionals. He highlighted that the application had already developed and undergone the testing phase. “The app is ready, we have developed and tested it, and we have requested approval on Google Store and now we are in the process of making it available to the public very soon,” he said. “But even before that, some hospitals have started using one of the application’s components. For example, CHUK and Ruhengeri hospitals are using the scheduling part of the application,” he said. According to Semakula, to ensure successful implementation, the Ministry of Health plans to train medical practitioners, the public, and other stakeholders on how to use the application effectively.
