Health workers in SA have signed off on Vula Mobile, an app that connects primary healthcare workers in South Africa with specialists, enabling them to tap into expert advice and ensuring quicker treatment and the right care for patients.
The app was established by Dr William Mapham when he was working in Swaziland’s Vula Emehlo Eye Clinic a few years ago. He realized that patients in rural areas had to wait for while to see a specialist, bearing in my that many of them had to travel to get medical attention so Vula bridged that gap by giving healthcare workers fast and easy access to specialist advice and expertise via smartphones.
The app uses very little data making it accessible to all primary healthcare workers. “Our top users make about 120 referrals per month and the cost of that in data is (about) R4,” said Mapham. It currently has a network of over 11 000 healthcare workers that can tap into specialists in 15 fields such as orthopaedics, general surgery, dermatology, emergency medicine and ophthalmology. Vula has received numerous awards since its launch, including the MTN Best Health Solution of the year award in 2019.
Furthermore, healthcare workers will be able to use Vula to seek specialist advice and assistance with potential COVID-19 cases and will be used by health professionals to connect to specialist advice at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD). On the other hand
Vula is also being used to help disaster and relief group, Gift of the Givers in their campaign to raise funds for essential medical equipment and supplies as the number of COVID-19 cases increase. The Backabuddy fund-raising platform is being used.
“The aim of the campaign is to support high-risk medical professionals on the frontline dealing with infected patients… through protective equipment, ventilators and other essential supplies in the quest to preserve life,” explained Dr Imtiaz Sooliman Founder of Gift of the Givers.
