SEED Winner 2015: Vula Mobile, connecting rural health workers to diagnostic tools
It is estimated that 30 million people around the world have lost their sight unnecessarily. In the developing world, where most cases of preventable blindness occur, primary healthcare workers often lack the access to appropriate information, skills, and basic diagnostic tools. The Vula Eye Health mobile allows healthcare workers to capture patient information and carry out eye tests using a smartphone. It connects rural healthcare workers with a library of information as well as a chat function, making the referral to send photographs and chat directly with an experienced medical specialist. The app is available on Android and iOS operating systems, and is already being used in five hospitals across South Africa, as well as one hospital in Swaziland.
We spoke to Will Mapham from SEED 2015 Award Winner Vula Mobile about how their app is helping to make fast, efficient, medical referrals.
Tell us a bit about Vula:
Vula was born as an idea in Swaziland four years ago. It grew up in the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa. Now it is a commercial product with head office in Cape Town.
We have a total of 550 registered specialists and health workers using Vula for eye health referrals. Eye health is a relatively small speciality, but provided an excellent testing ground. We expect many more health workers to be using Vula once it is available for multiple specialisations for fast efficient medical referrals.
Please explain how your business model works and how you have adapted it as your business has grown.
We charge licence fees to health departments, organisations and businesses. This keeps Vula free for specialists and health Workers.
How do you market your product/service?
Much of our marketing has been a result of competitions and awards. In 2015 we entered the MTN Most Innovative App and were Nominated for Public Sector Innovation Award (result pending). In 2014 we came 2nd in the GAP ICT Innovation Award and 1st in the Draem International Social Innovation 1st Prize. In 2013 we won a SAB Innovation Award.
We were also fortunate enough to be featured on prime time on BBC World as well as on local TV in South Africa. The below videos show clips of what the app can do:
Click Here: Vula in 15 seconds
Click Here: Vula on BBC
Click Here: Vula on eNCA (@14:30mins)
We have some followers on Twitter and on our Facebook site. Networking and face to face marketing is also performed.
What opportunities does using mobile tech provide that other forms of communication don’t?
The app allows healthcare workers to record/collect information on an electronic form, take photos, use other phone functions like the screen for doing a vision test. Additional software can be added to conduct hearing tests or analyse heart sounds. Inexpensive instant Chat can be used to discuss a patient without making a costly phone call.
Software is designed to link you to a specialist on call – you don’t need to have their number on your phone. It is also being designed to remove the patient information from both phones at the end of the referral to maintain patient confidentiality, but keep information stored on a secure Server.
Tell us about your beneficiaries. Who are they, how do they use your product/service?
Our beneficiaries are the patients who receive better health care thanks to specialist knowledge or skills. However they do not use the app, instead health workers who are treating the patient use Vula.
What feedback have you received from your ‘beneficiaries’?
I focused on perceptions and feedback of Vula for my Masters research in November 2014 . Vula is very popular among health workers who use it. However, at that stage it was very new and only a few people were using it. We made changes driven by the research and we now have many more users (550)
Tell us about your impact – social/environmental/economic.
We give access to better health care for those in rural areas, saving vision and restoring sight. This will expand once other specialities come on board. Economically better health status enables people to become more economically active. Especially if they were blind before. For health administrators Vula enables more efficient referral systems to drive down health care costs.
It benefits the environment as better referrals mean less people travelling long distances, wasting Petrol.
Have you set up partnerships to help grow your business, with whom and how do they work? Do you regard partnerships with other actors as a key route to scale or do you prefer to go it alone?
Partnerships are absolutely key. I don’t think that it would be possible to scale alone.
What challenges have been encountered during implementation? What solutions were adopted to overcome these challenges?
That’s a long list…! One example: the sound that Vula made when a specialist received a referral was initially a normal message sound and was often missed. This resulted in frustrations with slow replies. We managed to program Vula so that it turns the volume onto full and has a distinct sound that cannot be missed. The reply times improved dramatically since then. Now we get complaints that the sound is too annoying… It is an iterative process
n your opinion, what are the key factors that your business has or is seeking that will enable it to reach scale?
It needs to be in a position to achieve exponential growth. We live in a world where this kind of growth is now possible through use of the internet, mobile phones and Software.
What is the one factor that has most enabled your business to progress this far?
Help from other people as well as an obsession to make to make it work.
Where do you see your business five years from now?
Facilitating better access to healthcare in all specialities across the globe, focusing on developing countries.
Do you see other areas in which mobile applications such as Vula can make a real difference to those on a low income?
We have been approached by other sectors such as education for assisting in Early Childhood Development. Vula exists on a platform which can be manipulated to perform in areas other than health care.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to aspiring social entrepreneurs looking to start an inclusive business?
Create a simple demo as quickly as possible. Show as many people as possible, get their feedback, enter competitions to see if people like it.
Be aware that there is a big difference between a cool idea/product and a financially viable business. People don’t always know what they want until they see it. If Henry Ford had done a survey people may have replied ‘We want faster horses’, however he produced a motor car.
For more information on Vula Mobile visit their website
This interview was conducted by Anne Salter for the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business.
This interview is a part of a series of blogs, interviews and materials for SEED Africa Symposium held in Nairobi in September 2015. Read more and hear about what happened at SEED 2015 here.