Aneke: How Digital Solutions Can Transform Health Sector in Nigeria

Digitalised and convenient access to healthcare service was recently launched by the Chief Executive Officer of CloudClinic, Mr. Ifeanyi Aneke, who stated in a special interview session that the Nigerian healthcare sector is set for a major digital disruption. Dike Onwuamaeze brings the excerpts:

What is your view about the state of healthcare delivery today in Nigeria?

The state of medical service delivery in Nigeria is good but it can be better. There is a lot of pain that is being experienced by patients and even doctors as well in all honesty. There are lots of challenges in being able to access healthcare services conveniently mostly in cities like Lagos where patients have to struggle through traffic to get to hospitals. Even the hospitals are congested and some of the facilities in the hospitals are not adequate enough to cater for the resources that are needed. So it is a bit challenging. We have seen the exit of our doctors, which is a major challenge. So, I think that to a large extent there is a lot that can be done about the healthcare sector in Nigeria. And that is what the CloudClinic is coming to tackle. We have looked at some of these challenges and figured out ways to use technology to start eliminating some of the obstacles.

How will this technology address this “Japa culture” that you have just mentioned now?

It does not directly address it but it builds something that we can use to reduce its effects, especially around the doctors. What I mean by that is that with CloudClinic, some of our doctors that have left the shores of this country and still have the licence to practice medicine in Nigeria can still be consulted by their Nigerian patients wherever they are. Irrespective of whether they are in Canada or the United States of America, The United Kingdom and Australia or wherever they go, with this technology they can still take care of patients in Nigeria efficiently without sacrificing anything whatsoever. That is one of the helps the CloudClinic will bring.

What are the unique features of CloudClinic and the advantages it brings? 

The biggest unique feature of CloudClinic is its ability to be able to integrate the online world and the physical world. And it is something I think that the rest of the industry is not doing efficiently enough. We understand that healthcare is not something that we can just engineer and enroll on the cloud because human are physical and not digital beings. So we have built a technology that integrates seamlessly the online and the physical world so that a doctor is able to consult with his patients online using our technology and our partners that are integrating into the solutions will now help to carry that care to its last miles.  For instance, a patient that have consulted a doctor is within the CloudClinic platform will be guided to the closest pharmacy using our technology to locate where to pick up drugs or have the drug delivered to their homes. The integration and hybrid nature of the solutions we are building with our partners are what stand us out as unique.

Are there people you are partnering with? 

Oh yes!  By the last count about 70 partners have signed our agreement and are currently being integrated. We have about 900 other partners that are reviewing our agreement right now within Nigeria. They include medical labs, pharmacies, and reference hospitals because we can refer patients to them. These are the partners we are talking about. What we did is that we have built a model that is a win-win for everyone in the sector. So, it is easy to get them on board our platform. Mostly the only conversation we have before they sign the papers is to clarify how the platform works and how they will get their monies. But we have really built a model that they will like to join.

How do you protect the security feature of the app to maintain the integrity of clients’ data? 

First of all, our solution is running currently in the cloud. So, it is a cloud solution. We are using Microsoft Azure and the same technology is used by other organisations that care about the security of their data. So, it is really very secure. We make sure that every aspect of the solution is secured and I do not need to go into details here on how they are implemented. But we have made sure that the security and privacy of a patient’s data are factored into what we have built.

With the emergence of digital apps, where do you see medical practice in Nigeria in the next five years? 

I think that the healthcare industry in Nigeria has really not seen a lot of changes for a long time. I think that we are ready for a major disruption in the next few years. There are a lot of things that are supporting this conversation. If you look at the advent of internet penetration technologies like the IXPs (Internet Exchange Points) etc. that are coming to the country, that will simply give you clarity that the infrastructure required for that transformation is already in place. So, I think that in the next five years, we should be seeing a lot of transformation that will make telemedicine become the centre stage.

What segment of Nigerian society are you focusing on as your targeting market? 

Generally, we look at every Nigerian with internet access as part of our target market. In every application, there are those we call the early adopters. These are the first people we expect to launch the solution. And in our case, I think these people will be busy professionals because the main thing that we are selling at CloudClinic is convenient access to healthcare. We have to find ways to make it easy for people to be able to access healthcare delivery from wherever they are so they do not have to go through the strains of leaving their work and going through the traffic to get to their doctors. So, I think that busy professionals will be the first early adopters of this solution. But we are also having retainer-ship conversations with companies that will help us to bring in corporate organisations to use our solutions. So busy professionals and companies are the early adopters we are targeting.

What makes CloudClinic different from other existing digital healthcare providers?  

The biggest difference I will say is the fact that we have over time learnt from the mistakes of other digital healthcare solution providers. We took our time to look at the challenges that exist in the industry like how can we manage the community, how can we make sure that the platform is useful for the doctors, how do you make sure that it is providing the right value for those people and things like that and how do you build a technology that works, which I think is also a very important aspect of it? We won’t use technology that does not work seamlessly.  What we have done is that we have really built a technology that is orchestrating the interactions between the stakeholders and providing total healthcare services to the patients. These are the major differences. Most platforms just allow patients to talk with doctors over the phone and they call it ‘doctor in your pockets’ and things like that but they don’t give you that total package that a patient really wants to have.

What do you mean by a total health package? 

What I mean is that CloudClinic is the place to go to if you have any health need. When you come to the CloudClinic you will see a doctor. The doctor will request investigations for you. You will go to a diagnostics centre or they will come to your house to take your samples. Then the doctor will prescribe medications for you, which are either brought to you or you go to the pharmacy to buy the drugs. And if you need to go through surgical procedures or any kind of procedure at all, that app will also orchestrate that by referring you to a hospital. So, every single thing you need healthcare for you can do that on our platform.  So, that is the total package that I am talking about. It is not just that you have a problem and want to talk to a doctor. We take care of everything and we manage the entire process end-to-end.

How can the government come in to fill the gap in the healthcare industry in Nigeria? 

I think that there is a lot the government will do to provide support. When we were researching this solution we found out what was done by doctors in France that use a similar technology to what we have today. They were able to partner with the government of France, which started using that solution for basic healthcare in that country. Today, they have over 70 million users. In fact, every person in France that is using the basic health facilities is using that solution. And I think that it is a tremendous opportunity for Nigeria’s basic healthcare delivery. If Nigeria’s government adopts this, it has the potential for providing basic healthcare to every Nigerian. Our vision is to provide convenient healthcare services to everyone anywhere in Nigeria. Partnering with the government will help us to bring that about.

Is your organisation working with any healthcare regulator in the country? 

Yes! The CloudClinic is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). We have our trademark registered as well. We are also working with different government health agencies as well. There is a conversation that we are having with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the Medical Directors Guild of Nigeria, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria. We are working with the key stakeholders in the country to make sure that we are landing this in an appropriate way.