Telkom Kenya has partnered with power health tech company, Afya Rekod’s health management platform, to facilitate COVID-19 monitoring and analysis.
The Afya Rekod platform is a centralised, multilingual, intelligent health data platform, built with Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules and blockchain technology, to ensure that it is adaptive, dynamic and secured for public usage. The platform converts structured and unstructured data to global health data record keeping, using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and other international standards. It was developed in March this year, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, to support global efforts to curb the disease. The Afya Rekod platform provides a virtual repository for individuals to store their health data in real time.
Kenyans will be able to access the platform via USSD code: *380#, or by downloading the Afya Rekod App via Google Play Store.
The Afya Rekod platform will enable users to capture real-time data that will heat-map areas where COVID-19 infections are growing, and monitor the growth in real-time. This will be done by collecting user-generated information from users across multiple geographic locations to allow for sufficient data analysis.
The initiative with Afya Rekod adds to the list of targeted interventions that Telkom has announced in recent days. Last month, Telkom announced the launch of the Soma na Telkom bundles, tailored to power the e-learning programmes of educational institutions. They have partnered with University of Nairobi (UON), the KCA University, the USIU-A, and the Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI).
Telkom has also donated a 50 Mbps link to the Kenyatta National Hospital’s Infectious Diseases Unit at Mbagathi. The free Internet has enabled patients in quarantine at the Mbagathi facility, to keep in touch with their loved ones and the outside world. Telkom has also provisioned the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus, that is based at the Ministry of Health’s offices at Afya House, with free Internet connectivity, to support their work in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya. The 200 Mbps link will also be used by the Ministry of Health’s offices at Afya House.
Telkom and its partner Loon Inc. has also launched the Loon service in Kenya that seeks to use its 4G/LTE Internet solution to connect unserved and under-served communities in Kenya. Initial coverage areas have already been identified, starting with Nairobi, Machakos, Nyeri, Nakuru, Kitui, Nanyuki, Narok and into Kisii. Telkom and Loon will thereafter work to expedite service deployment, progressively, to other areas, to support the Kenya Government’s efforts to address and manage the spread of COVID-19 in the country.