Kenyan Startup Launches Blockchain-Driven Technology For Automating Medical Records

Kenyan-based AfyaRekod recently launched the fully automated Universal Patient Portal – a blockchain-driven technology that claims to transform the face of patient care across Africa and the World. Through a secure central platform (Rekod.com) patients and the medical professionals treating them will have real-time access to their health data and medical history not only ensuring effective ongoing medical management but critical, timely information in an emergency.

The brainchild of CEO John Kamara, AfyaRekod was founded in 2019 as an Adanian Lab start-up with seed funding from Mac Venture Capital and Next Chymia. Kamara saw first-hand how the lack of medical records and static data could lead to poor medical management when a friend died having received the wrong medical intervention in an emergency. Kamara built an AI platform that would track health data, aimed at bridging the gap between health care and treatment, anywhere, anytime for patients, medical professionals, providers, and organizations.

Medical records are a vital tool in managing health, notifying healthcare professionals of medications, chronic illness, past problems, and procedures and ultimately allowing them to determine the most accurate course of treatment. Misdiagnosis is serious and can lead to a delay in treatment of the real condition. An IOM report released in 2015 indicated that around 12 million instances of patient misdiagnosis occur annually in the USA, a country with a well-developed healthcare sector. Misdiagnosis is preventable, but only if health records are accurate, and mobile.

“We identified the capture and storage of accurate data across every possible level of infrastructure as a core problem. Bringing real-time access to data was the solution. Our tool now allows patients to create a portal with all their health data and most importantly gives patients sovereign rights of ownership of their data. The patient logs in and sees all the information from the hospital. They don’t have to ask the hospital or beg for information. It’s their right to have access to it”, said Kamara.