Med-e-Screen: Healthcare
in a backpack.
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Audio Title: Med-e-Screen: Healthcare in a backpack.
Description: As a medical doctor specialising in urology, Raymond Campbell, founder of Med-e-screen, realised that the South African health care system needs improvement. He says, “It is not sustainable that only 15 percent of the population have medical aid. What about the other 85 percent? It is like they must fend for themselves.” With this in mind, he has set out on a mission to combine medical care with technology, with the aim of creating a more inclusive and affordable health care system.
As a medical doctor specialising in urology, Raymond Campbell, founder of Med-e-screen, realised that the South African health care system needs improvement.
He says, “It is not sustainable that only 15 percent of the population have medical aid. What about the other 85 percent? It is like they must fend for themselves.”
With this in mind, he has set out on a mission to combine medical care with technology, with the aim of creating a more inclusive and affordable health care system.
Using diagnostics, Med-e-screen’s Medi-pack provides an all-encompassing assessment of its patient’s health.
The “defined basket of diseases” that the Medi-pack focuses on includes “big ticket items” like hypertension, strokes, TB, HIV and diabetes. Raymond says that the Medi-pack is designed to test these things, as they are the most fatal in South Africa.
the great idea
Part of the vision behind the Medi-pack is to provide medical care to those individuals in rural areas
and to help them get their results in a timely manner via their smartphones.
The idea of sending results to the tested individual’s cell phone is supported by the penetration rate of cell phones in South Africa.
Raymond says, “South Africa probably has one of the highest cell phone penetration rates in the world. It is seldom that you will find, in 2023, someone who does not have a phone.”
The assessment of the Medi-pack’s results can be divided into two factors: “A score out of 100; the higher it is, the better the shape you are in. We also [divide] it into colours; green, yellow and amber”, says Raymond.
Green indicates that the user does not need to see someone urgently. “We will never say that you do not need to see someone,” he says. Yellow indicates that the user needs to see someone “within a reasonable time,” and amber indicates that the user needs to see someone “as soon as possible”.
The value of Med-e-screen’s innovative technology was first recognised by Microsoft’s Vice President, Brad Smith, in 2018.
Thereafter, the Medi-pack featured in Microsoft’s top 10 global innovations of 2019 and was also showcased at the World Economic Forum as one of the technologies to watch by Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella.
“Since then, we have added to it. If it was good then, it is really awesome now.”
– Raymond Campbell
The Medi-pack has been the catalyst for a number of Med-e-screen’s success stories. One of these stories includes the roll-out of the Medi-pack in the Mamelodi Day Hospital, where the time that it takes to get blood test results were reduced to 30 minutes as opposed to the original three hours.
This especially helped pregnant women and their unborn children, as any pregnancy concerns could be addressed promptly.
Med-e-screen’s technology is a way to bridge the gap between the scarce number of medical professionals and the number of individuals who need medical care. “What you are doing is you are flattening the hierarchy and breaking the silos, and this is what technology does,” says Raymond.
Raymond says that Med-e-screen is more than just a screening tool. In his eyes, it serves as a proactive solution to healthcare because you can “check in” every day, and “stay aware of your health status instead of waiting for something to go wrong before you consult a doctor.
The next roll-out of Med-e-screen’s Medi-packs will take place in Kuruman, Northern Cape, in January 2024.
Teagan specialises in Copywriting, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing and Blogging. Teagan uncovers the deeper “why” behind every venture. She believes that every person and project has a unique story, and nothing excites her more than transforming these narratives into compelling content that demands to be shared with the world.
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