Gone are the days when the only way one would access health services was through physically visiting a healthcare facility, seeing a physician, and getting treated. Lately, you can complete the entire hospital process without visiting a healthcare facility thanks to telemedicine.
Although Telemedicine has multiple definitions, it can be easily explained as a term used to describe the remote delivery of healthcare services using telecommunications technology. Among the players offering all-around Telemedicine services in Uganda is Venro Healthcare – a medical company specializing in home-based care and e-health services.
“At Venro Healthcare, we offer telemedicine services. Our main aim is to make healthcare available, affordable, and accessible to everyone. We have an online platform that enables our patients to schedule appointments after which a doctor moves to the patient’s home or office and conducts consultation and physical examination, and also takes samples in case tests are needed. We also offer bedside nursing dedicated to patients that don’t have caretakers. The other service we offer is online medicine delivery through our online pharmacy. For controlled medicines, you must present a prescription,” Kenneth Ssonko, the Venro Healthcare Co-Founder explained.
He added: “We started Venro Healthcare in 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. We realized that patients couldn’t access hospitals yet healthcare providers were allowed to move. We have since served more than 1,000 patients and have gone on to establish a physical facility that supports our telemedicine services.”
Ssonko highlighted that their services are accessible via a website platform and on a mobile APP.
“When one logs onto the website or opens the APP, he/she chooses the service they want and also selects the physician they want to see or medicine they want to buy. When we receive this order, we go through it and automatically assign the right professional to attend to it. We show the customer the total bill which they can pay digitally via mobile money, merchant codes, bank deposits, or online banking. All customers sign consent forms to confirm that they have allowed us to serve them and commit to paying the arising bill.”
Venro Health has featured on Day 18 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
