Pieter Verkade, MTN Group CCO |
MTN Group and Hello Doctor (a subsidiary of Metropolitan Health within MMI Holdings) have partnered to deliver mobile health (m-health) solutions to MTN’s territories across Africa.
The partnership between MTN and Hello Doctor comes as a technology-based solution designed to work with the local General Practitioners (GPs) to ensure that consumers receive the right information before seeing a doctor.
The roll out to MTN markets will take place over the next 18 months, starting with South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon and Rwanda.
“MTN is continually looking at ways to brighten the lives of customers through innovative and relevant mobile solutions. We are thus excited by the partnership with Hello Doctor as the service brings essential healthcare information to our customers’ fingertips”, says Pieter Verkade, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer.
Hello Doctor allows consumers access to trusted, in-depth medical information combined with professional insights and advice from registered medical doctors across multiple platforms. Apart from the Hello Doctor TV show in South Africa, which is produced and anchored by Dr Michael Mol on SABC 2, Hello Doctor offers access to medical advice and doctors via the Hello Doctor mobile apps.
“Technology has made a huge impact on how the industry delivers healthcare. Hello Doctor believes
that its innovative offering across multiple technological platforms and its partnership with MTN, will
allow us to work towards affordable and accessible healthcare for all. Underpinning the success of this
goal is creating a link between technology and first-world clinical protocols, facilitated by medical
professionals committed to making a difference that is both affordable and simple” Craig Townsend,
Director, Hello Doctor.
The Hello Doctor app is free to download and works off both smart (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia & HTML5) and selected feature phones (approximately 85% of all phones in Africa), effectively providing consumers with “a doctor in their pocket”. The app provides free content that is updated daily, providing consumers with access to healthcare advice, answers to health-related questions in live group chat forums, confidential one-on-one text-a-doctor Q&As and the ability to receive a call back from doctor within 60 minutes. A USSD service will also be launched as part of this solution.
The paid-for services that will be available to MTN subscribers via the Hello Doctor mobile app include Digital Doctor and House Call. These services will provide subscribers with instant confidential access to over 100 registered doctors in South Africa who will be able to give medical guidance and advice.
as well as additional services on the mobile app and website that are aimed at helping people achieve
and maintain their health and wellness goals. Whereas the Digital Doctor service allows subscribers to
send a confidential text message through the Hello Doctor app and one of their doctors will respond
with personal confidential advice within 2 hours.
With each new territory being rolled out, Hello Doctor will partner with local doctor networks to ensure
that users get access to doctors for advice and guidance in their own language. The service will also
be integrated with existing healthcare services that MTN already offers such the “midwife” programme
in Ghana.
About Hello Doctor
Since its launch in 2009, Hello Doctor has grown to over 600 000 users in South Africa across multiple
portals and social media platforms. In January 2013, Metropolitan Health recognised the synergy and
growth potential by acquiring a 50.1% stake in the Hello Doctor business. Hello Doctor’s intention is
not to replace the GP, but instead to support primary and preventative healthcare by acting as an
assistant to local GPs when consumers want a quick healthcare reference before seeing their GP or
rushing off to the hospital. No examination and diagnosis is made and, therefore, no clinical medical
healthcare is undertaken – you just receive access to health information and guidance when you need
it most.
About the MTN Group
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in
22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities
Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 30 September 2013, MTN recorded
203.8 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote
d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo
(Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen
and Zambia. Visit. Visit us at, www.mtnbusiness.com , www.mtn.com, www.mtnmmo.com and for our football fans www.mtnfootball.com