Tanzania : Health-tech Startup Launches Online Platform To Connect Patients With Doctors

Medikea, a Tanzanian-based health-tech startup has launched an online platform to enable patients book appointments with their preferred clinics at no cost.

Medikea was founded in October 2020 by Dr. Elvis Silayo and Desire Ruhinda. The rest of the team behind the startup consists of two doctors and a full-stack software engineer.

“Today, there are 3.5 billion appointments booked annually in Africa, this is a $60 billion market opportunity and four times bigger than hotel booking in Africa. And while patients are now looking for healthcare services online, less than one percent of doctors and clinics have any form of online booking”.

With the Medikea app, users can search for doctors by name, location, approved insurance or specialty and compare them based on availability, ranking and feedback.

While booking is free for patients, Medikea charges clinics and doctors a monthly subscription fee to obtain the Software as a Service tool (SaaS). This tool allows doctors to manage their appointments, add schedules and engage with patients.

Additionally, patients can receive medicines from an accredited pharmacy located nearby within an hour of using the app and also track their health by booking prevention health checkups.

Medikea is currently self-funded and rapidly gaining traction with bookings growing by 45% each week.

Even though it currently operates in only Tanzania, the startup plans to extend to other major cities in the country before expanding to other countries.

Medikea app is available on both Google Play and the App Store.