In celebration of Kenya’s upcoming national launch of the CHT-based electronic community health information system (eCHIS), we’re reflecting on the breadth of Medic’s more than decade-long commitment of collaboration and impact in-country.
In part one, we highlighted Medic’s journey supporting community health in Kenya. In part two below, we highlight our collaboration with Living Goods – a partnership that led to the development of a powerful set of mobile and web tools to support their community health model. The mobile app, eventually named SmartHealth, became the early foundation for Kenya’s Ministry of Health-led eCHIS product, which will be scaled to nearly 100,000 community health workers. In part three, we detail Medic’s role in supporting the Ministry of Health and the national consortium of partners making eCHIS a reality.
When it comes to driving sustainable and meaningful change for community health workers, the path is best walked in partnership. Since 2015, Medic and Living Goods have worked side-by-side in communities across Kenya – and Uganda – with a shared vision of empowering health workers to provide more equitable, accessible, and higher quality care. Building from our early partnership in Busia county, we are now on the precipice of the launch of Kenya’s MoH-led eCHIS app, modeled after Living Goods’ Smart Health app and hosted on the Medic-stewarded Community Health Toolkit. In celebration of this milestone, we’re sharing memories of our partnership from our teammates in reflection of the journey we have undertaken together in solidarity with the communities we serve.
From our teams:
“Medic is honored to accompany the Ministry of Health of Kenya to enable universal health coverage for all Kenyans through the Kenya eCHIS, which is built on Medic’s open source Community Health Toolkit platform. We believe we are stronger together, and nurture a collaborative and learning culture. Our partnership with Living Goods has enabled us to successfully accompany the Ministry of Health and County governments in Kenya, and to partner with a diverse group of civil society organizations. We are immensely grateful for the strong sense of solidarity among Kenya eCHIS partners and look forward to working together to realize UHC in Kenya.”
Krishna Jafa, CEO – Medic
Kanishka Katara, Chief Digital Health Officer Living Goods
“Partnerships have always been crucial for the development of user-centric digital health interventions which are required to operate at scale and are ready for widespread implementation. Living Goods has been at the forefront of this collaboration across a wide range of spectrum including our long-standing partnership with Medic which has been focused on developing digital health solutions which are robust, adaptable, and capable of meeting the expectations of government-led programs and initiatives. We are committed to partner and support in realizing the transformative vision of the Ministry of Health (Kenya) wherein digital tools and solutions enable the provision of timely and effective healthcare access to multitudes of beneficiaries and communities as well as the convergence of various layers of the public health ecosystem.”
“Our partnership with Living Goods has been one of co-creation and learning underpinned with the urgency to connect hard-to-reach areas to essential primary health care delivered by community health workers digitally. Living Goods’ implementation experience has plowed back invaluable insights into the evolution of the CHT Core Framework and together we have generated evidence that digital tools and equipped, supervised, and compensated CHWs are essential for universal health coverage.”
Simon Mbae, East Africa Program Head, Medic
“Creating a world-class, fit-for-purpose, digital health solution for community health is a challenging yet exciting journey. It demands close collaboration between governments, technology vendors and implementing partners. It also requires an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement, as teams must constantly learn and innovate to respond to evolving needs. Through its long-term partnership with Medic, Living Goods is proud to have played a pivotal role in shaping what an ideal Community Health Information System could look like. The launch of eCHIS in Kenya demonstrates how governments across Africa and beyond can adopt technology as a key driver of impact at the community health level, and a critical cog towards Universal Health Coverage.”
Gitahi Ng’ang’a, Director of Software Engineering, Living Goods
“Through our collective partnerships, we have managed to collaborate in designing and development of CHT product features and improvements which have helped to improve CHT users’ experiences and ensured that CHT meets the evolving needs of the community healthcare systems. We are really grateful for this incredible partnership; the feedback and contributions from the Living Goods team through the CHT Forum has been critical in enhancing CHT as a digital public good and has helped us to achieve greater impact.”
Antony Khaemba, Relationship Manager, Medic
We’re honored to continue our partnership, built on shared vision and commitment, as we work to enable universal health coverage in Kenya and beyond. For more on our work together: