PharmAccess is a group of non-profit organizations dedicated to improving access to quality healthcare in Africa. PharmAccess mobilizes public and private resources for the benefit of doctors and patients through clinical standards and quality improvements, loans for healthcare providers, health insurance, mHealth innovations and operational research.
This integrated approach is made possible by the following organizations:
Technological innovation is disrupting virtually every industry across the globe.
The mobile phone is one of the biggest social equalizers on the African continent. More than 90% of people use a simple mobile phone. We believe that mobile technology is on the verge of disrupting healthcare in Africa in a way that none of us can fully imagine yet. The mobile revolution in Africa offers huge opportunities to tackle Africa’s poor health statistics through new forms of pre-payment and risk pooling.
Developing and applying mobile technology to make the healthcare market more inclusive has become an increasingly important part of our approach. We have been developing and applying mobile payment innovations in real‐life settings in Kenya since 2013, when we first tested the concept of the mobile health wallet: a personal wallet on the mobile phone, dedicated exclusively to healthcare‐related expenses. The mobile health wallet uniquely combines demand and supply innovations with the potential to revolutionize healthcare and financing of healthcare on one digital platform.
The digitalization of data and financial flows allows us to strengthen and accelerate our tools and services, and to reach and support a growing group of healthcare providers seeking to improve their care and business. This benefits patients and improves the attractiveness for investors, donor organizations and governments to work with and invest in these providers.
Among others, we have co-initiated a digital platform that connects all players in the market – bringing transparency, accountability and direct access to and for end-users. This mobile technology makes it possible to connect people, healthcare providers and payers such as family members or donor agencies at close-to-zero transaction costs, building trust and a new kind of solidarity. It empowers consumers, improves their financial protection, supports better quality of care and generates local and international financing for health. The transparency of this technology helps build a new kind of healthcare solidarity. It allows us to take our approach of stimulating demand and supply with the aim of attracting healthcare investments to a new level.
In Kenya, this technology was rolled out in 2016 under the brand name M-TIBA. We are currently working with a growing number of public and private partners to develop digital services and products in the different countries where we work.
Delivering access to healthcare with CarePay
While developing innovative solutions for healthcare, PharmAccess and its partners realized the need for a solid, back-end infrastructure to facilitate payments and support a network of clinics where patients can utilize their wallets for treatment.
Kenyan company CarePay was established in 2015 to develop, manage and own a health payment platform, locally branded as M-TIBA. CarePay is an independent Kenyan company. It manages and provides the platform that powers M-TIBA. This platform technology can integrate with any prevalent digital payment system in a country, including banks, online payment systems and mobile money operators.
Connecting people to affordable healthcare with M-TIBA
M-TIBA is a revolutionary piece of health technology that can be accessed simply through a mobile phone. It’s a mobile wallet that can only be used for healthcare and it comes with exceptional capabilities: Individuals can use the platform to get insured, save money for themselves, or pay for their family’s healthcare. Governments and donors can also pay in, enabling them to reach the most vulnerable in a direct and transparent way. In countries like Kenya and Tanzania where most people pay for care out-of-pocket in their time of need, having a reliable tool that they can trust to save and access insurance for healthcare could mean the difference between getting care and going without.
M-TIBA goes beyond insurance. It also collects vital information about costs, quality of care, and patients’ ability to pay. This data is useful for everyone. It enables providers to improve healthcare delivery and empowers patients to make informed decisions about when and where to seek care.
This technology fundamentally changes the way individuals and healthcare providers interact. With a mobile phone in hand, individuals, however poor or excluded, count and their healthcare needs can be met.
M-TIBA in Kenya
Many patients and clinics in Kenya have already registered on M-TIBA. The M-TIBA dashboard provides daily updates on the people and clinics that are connected to the platform, as well as on the healthcare services that are provided to the M-TIBA users, ranging from treatment of HIV/AIDS or malaria to maternal and child healthcare.
Direct, one-to-one funding to women and children need it most
HealthConnect is an impact driven social enterprise offering an innovative platform that connects people that care to those who need care. Through direct and fully transparent peer-to-peer funding, HealthConnect provides access to healthcare for individuals and families in Kenya. It’s our giving platform allowing people resident in the Netherlands to easily transfer money straight into the mobile health wallet of those who need it most. Because health is a basic human right.
CarePay is today being recognised as a Technology Pioneer 2018 by the World Eonomic Forum. Launched in 2000, The Technology Pioneer community recognises companies that are designing, developing and deploying new technologies that can have a significant impact on business and society. Read more
In Kenya, a PharmAccess partnership pilot project with the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) is using digital solutions to develop an understanding of how the principles of value-based healthcare in low and middle-income countries can be applied. Read more
At this year’s European Development Days PharmAccess hosted a panel session on technology and the power it has to improve healthcare for women. Every day around the world 830 women die from preventable pregnancy related causes and it is a common experience for women in developing countries to be excluded from quality healthcare. The panel discussion centered on how to harness the tremendous technological progress that is happening all around us for the benefit of those currently left out. Read more
AHTC, Tower C4 • Paasheuvelweg 25
1105 BP Amsterdam • The Netherlands
T: +31 (0) 20 – 210 3920
E: info@pharmaccess.org
