South African startup Vula Mobile, a medical referral app and online platform which hosts a network of health professionals, has passed the three million patient referral mark.
Launched in July 2014, Vula allows primary healthcare workers to connect with specialists to enable faster assessment of various conditions and to optimise the way patients seek care in rural areas.
More than 45,000 health professionals are now registered on Vula across South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini. Together they send over 2,000 patient referrals a day, and the average specialist response comes back in around fifteen minutes.
More than three million referrals have now been made via the app, with the startup stressing its impact in a blog post.
“Before Vula, a doctor in a district hospital needing a specialist opinion had to phone around and hope someone answered. That could take up to 45 minutes. Referral letters travelled with patients on long, expensive journeys, often to be told the trip had not been necessary at all,” it said.
“In rural areas, one in five patients can now be helped through Vula without being transferred to a specialist hospital at all. At Ngwelezana Hospital in northern KwaZulu-Natal, up to 1,500 patient referrals a month are assessed through the app before anyone travels. Patients who used to make a 250 kilometre trip to find out they did not need specialist care now get that answer the same day.”
