Remote Doctors 4 Africa (RD4A) is a new application bringing hospital-grade diagnostic equipment to the citizens in remote corners of South Africa, Botswana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. With the value proposition set at being a platform to help doctors and nurses operating in rural areas gather and process critical data, Remote Doctors 4 Africa is set to be a unique entrant into a busy telehealth market.
Remote Doctors 4 Africa is expanding rural individuals’ access to digital telehealth services and providing healthcare professionals with improved access to important data.
The business is centered on three pillars: providing connectivity to remote communities so that residents can access healthcare online; educating those communities about how to use that access to empower themselves; and offering the whole digital healthcare ecosystem to those regions.
Ernest Mhlongo, the CEO of the company RD4A, notes that the company aims to connect the unconnected through digital services, delivering actual interaction and services from local GPs and specialized healthcare providers that can aid with basic medical consultations, through expert medical diagnostic healthcare equipment and services, which brings primary healthcare closer to individuals who are neglected in the communities around South Africa.
When he joined RD4A as co-founding CEO in 2019, the South African ICT veteran brought over two decades of experience. Mhlongo provides strategic leadership and leverages the skills of co-founders Swys Kotze and Chris Mulhall to advance important healthcare treatments in Africa’s remote regions.Unique service offering.
RD4A provides a comprehensive digital consultation management suite to general practitioners, medical specialists, and healthcare support services, while automatically adhering to applicable legislation. Additionally, it provides clinicians with complete access to and involvement in field-based remote care units.
“Hardware is procured through our networked partners, where equipment is supplied by a respected European OEM with back-up support as needed, as well as through the supply of primary care services that we offer,” Mhlongo explains.
The current hardware offering includes the following:
• The primary care cart: designed to handle multiple specializations, the cart system enables you to begin with the fundamentals and gradually extend your clinical demands.
• The Advanced Vital Signs Monitor is used in telemedicine applications to swiftly spot check, measure, and capture a patient’s vital signs, such as pulse oximetry, blood pressure, and temperature readings.
• The Multifunctional Camera and Scope: simplify clinical telemedicine patient exams & workflow procedures by directly integrating with AGNES Connect telemedicine platform, allowing you to capture and send medical pictures to a remote provider easily.
In order to provide their services, healthcare providers must obtain the necessary equipment through RD4A and then bill patients for their services. Project Manager Nobatembu Jilingisi is working with RD4A’s partners, stakeholders, and patients to promote the benefits of telehealth and RD4A’s products and services.
The majority of physicians in remote village clinics and towns write everything down and save it somewhere. The patient’s medical history is gone if they see a another doctor, adds Mhlongo. In order to help healthcare providers and governments better manage resources, we are advocating for all of this information to be stored in the cloud.
It is now possible to make well-informed decisions based on unique patient histories thanks to universal and up-to-date data provided by the Remote Doctors 4 Africa program.
Through seed funding, the company hopes to achieve its goal of improving healthcare for rural South Africans through improving access to care.
