Online system enhances use of medicines among patients

Napteker is an African online systematic pharmaceutical directory that provides education and information to its users on important issues pertaining to use of medicines in Africa, such as dosage, drug and food interaction. It also provides information on side effects related to the use of certain medicines. Information on the platform is classified according to a country and pharmacists will often be ready to respond to queries from users all the time. Napteker is a product of Foyo Group, which is a youth-run company whose incubation took place at the Kigali-based kLab, an innovation Tech space in the country. It has proved to be a unique idea compared to other similar products on the market today. “The uniqueness of this directory is that information isn’t based on one-size-fits-all, but it is tailored for different countries in accordance with their different needs and pharmacy specifications. It is free of charge and focusing on only Africa but also very interactive and user-friendly,” says Idriss Mbuguje, the product manager of Napteker. The product is currently developed for 48 countries and has started with 39 African countries namely; Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo, Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Uganda, Kenya, Lesotho and Madagascar. Others are Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria,Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Soudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Chad, Togo,Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Phases of Napteker product development Phase one: Listing all drugs for each country. Phase two: Creating details about each drug i.e. dosage, drug and food interaction and side effect of every drug.Phase three: Building an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system in every country in the local language and other official languages used in the country. For feature phone users, an Interactive Voice Response will be developed locally in close collaboration with ministries of health of respective countries. Phase Four: Pharmacists responding to the inquiries from users on both mobile and web platforms. Phase Five: Organising an international symposium to hostindividuals, corporates, organisations, institutions, involved inhealth sector to tackle together health issues on African continent. Why Napteker As a second way of spreading awareness and fostering access to information and advice on health issues, Foyo Group has also developed a short-format TV show named Foyo t-Health. These programs feature a range of illnesses and explain how to prevent or treat them. Mbuguje points out: “Many people in Rwanda and indeed several other African countries are illiterate. A television program can help raise awareness among such people too.” He adds that “There is much to do in Africa. New technologies are being developed and we should see this as an opportunity for the health sector as well.” The team behind this innovation has high hopes about this project; confident that it will contribute significantly to the development of Africa, particularly in the health sector. Foyo Group’s contribution to the society Foyo Group also has a social objective in which 15 per cent of net profit is invested in social affairs, 5 per cent to pay for the breakfasts of participating pediatrics, another 5 per cent goes to reinforce the well-being of a selected group of vulnerable and poor people in the communities. The remaining 5 per cent of the profits go to facilitate other start-ups. Having been incubated in kLab, the tech start-up led by their CEO Aphrodice Mutangana works from Monday to Thursday and the rest of the week is left to conversations and assistance to other entrepreneurs on how best they can build their businesses. They devote a lot of time to guide many young and enthusiastic youth at Telecom House. Foyo group also won Seedstars World Competition with its mobile application MEPA and will represent Rwanda in Switzerland where it emerged in number seven position in competition with several start-ups all over the world.

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Online system enhances use of medicines among patients