Health Correspondent
Medical doctor and health philanthropist Dr Esperance Luvindao, in partnership with OSAAT Africa Health Foundation and MENGA Healthcare Technology, unveiled MENGA, a digital health solution.
The solution was invented by Luvindao and launched on Thursday.
“MENGA is unique in that it provides real-time access to a doctor and medication as opposed to a mere locker system,” she said.
According to Luvindao, the platform has been in the works for the past couple of years and was developed to assist patients throughout Africa’s semi-rural areas, suburbs and informal settlements to gain access to prescribed medication without having to travel long distances.
“MENGA aims to reduce the gap between the quality of healthcare afforded to those from lower socio-economic groups versus that offered to higher socioeconomic groups by ensuring timely consultation and acquisition of medication,” she said.
Luvindao added that the platform also allowed patients to acquire out-of-pocket health costs through conventional consultation and medication acquisition methods.
“With MENGA’s development having commenced years ago, the testing phase was successfully conducted at MENGA’s facilities,” she said.
Luvindao added that with the Intellectual Property of the concept and innovation credited to her the current wish is to launch MENGA for public use in Namibia as soon as the legislation on telemedicine in the country is finalised.
“Regulated digital health may be the solution to advance quality healthcare while reducing the burden of the traditional way of doing medicine,” she said.
Luvindao has started talks for rollout with two other countries.
The target group for the innovation is women, men and children between the ages of 1 and 50.
“The process will entail patients consulting with the doctor on call through a text messaging system after which they will gain access to their medication after confirming their identity by biometrics at a nearby MENGA facility. If the MENGA, for instance, is positioned in local supermarkets, the facility can ensure that the entire process on the patient’s end does not require internet connectivity,” said Luvindao.
