December 16, 2011 – Kenya is leading the way in mobile health services, with new health platforms quickly emerging. Start-up company, Shimba Technologies, has partnered with Safaricom to provide 18 million subscribers with crucial access to doctors. The new app, called MedAfrica supplies its users with first-aid recommendations from local hospitals, health alerts, and a list of doctors and dentists.

MedAfrica is free to users and supported by advertising revenue. The creators hope to expand the service to include a comment feature, which would allow users to share feedback about health providers. Safaricom also recently partnered with another start-up, Call-a-Doc, which allows subscribers to call doctors for expert advice for two cents a minute.

World Bank officials see significant promise from mobile health efforts, pointing to the fact that 50 percent of all Kenyan banking is already done on mobile phones. Elizabeth Ashbourne, director of global health information at the World Bank says, “In terms of providing basic services through mobile phones on the continent, Kenya is the lead in many ways, and showing the way.” Ashbourne adds that “Local applications in the health space are absolutely frontier activities.”

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