‘Integrated Medics to improve health care delivery’

Weekly Trust: How did integrated medics come about? Oladapo Gbenle: I had always wanted to do something for the health sector. I lost two relatives and up till date there has been no single diagnosis pointing to the cause of their death. You can’t even see any record about their health apart from the one […]

Weekly Trust: How did integrated medics come about?
Oladapo Gbenle: I had always wanted to do something for the health sector. I lost two relatives and up till date there has been no single diagnosis pointing to the cause of their death. You can’t even see any record about their health apart from the one that took their lives. Instead of throwing blame around because the loss was painful, I made up my mind to see what I could do to make health delivery system in Nigeria and Africa a wonderful experience. Integrated Medics is a platform, easy to understand and use, beautiful user interface, customisable and designed for Africa and for all classes of hospitals, from small clinics to large scale teaching hospitals.Although it has come a long way, I’m yet to achieve my intended goal.
WT: What features make up Integrated Medics app?
Gbenle: It’s a solution developed to integrate all hospitals and allied organisations’ activities together seamlessly in a single application. If you see other electronic medical records, they take care of every department but leave out inpatient management or sometimes leave accounting and stock management. Some even separate billing from account and so on. Integrated Medics is a solution that takes care of everything, under one platform.
WT: How long did it take you to put it together?
Gbenle: We started in 2009 and software development is continuous, so we have not stopped developing. We get feedback almost all the time and we keep up with the current trends in the sector.
WT: Why did you decide on an app for medicine?
Gbenle: This is one aspect of life that concerns everybody and a single mistake can result in the loss of a precious life. Imagine when sick people had to queue for hours; even for a healthy person it is not easy, let alone a sick person, when all of this can be solved with a software solution. You need to visit one of our general hospitals and you will understand what we’re talking about.
WT: What were the challenges putting it together?
Gbenle: If you have to bootstrap for a project of this magnitude you will understand the importance of funding. Engaging different professionals is no small cost, from accountants to doctors to pharmacists, asset managers to stock keepers and not to mention laboratory scientists, etc.
WT: What setbacks did you encounter?
Gbenle: This is a very big project and getting partners on the project is a major challenge. We have gotten different offers but at the end you realise that they have a different plan.
WT: What kind of impact did you expect it to have on users?
Gbenle: You need to ask those who have used it. And people that are working in hospitals and never knew that a solution exists that can make all their work as easy as a mouse click. Patients that will soon find out that their health records are no longer in one sacred file in hospitals that sometimes takes hours to find.
WT: Would you say it is an entirely new creation and there is no other related work?
Gbenle: The concept is not new but the approach is completely new and built for our system.
WT: Why do you think people should pay it any attention enough to subscribe to it?
Gbenle: No solution gives enrollee/patient access to their health record like Integrated Medics. We are working to make it available and safe in the cloud so that no matter where you are in the world you can access your health records, in case of emergency or accident.
WT: What other products have you created?
Gbenle: School Management solution-is portal(it takes care of all schools from nursery to higher institutions), automobile solution- autoklic (where you can buy your auto-part and request for automotive service), Property Manager (the first solution we built) – Manages property, Mediclue – HMO/Enrollee phase of Integrated Medics and so on.
WT: Are you partnering with corporate bodies, government or other individuals on this?
Gbenle: We are discussing with a number of partners – we pray things work out well.
WT: How do you go about funding?
Gbenle: Bootstrapping.
WT: Are you looking to add other titles?
Gbenle: Yes
WT: What has the experience been like with network service providers?
Gbenle: What can you do? You need to make use of what you have to achieve what you want. But it is better than what we used to have.
WT: How well have your audience related with the app?
Gbenle: They like it and this is one of the source of encouragement to my team.
WT: What projects are you working on at the moment?
Gbenle: We are trying to build something for ordinary Nigerians in our local languages, I mean the small shops, okada riders, etc.
WT: In what other areas are you looking to develop apps?
Gbenle: Security.
WT: When you are not working, what are you doing?
Gbenle: I’m definitely in church or watching an ‘important’ football match.