How Ogow Health, a Somalia startup is improving care paths and serving thousands of patients

Ogow Health, a Somalian e-health startup, is improving care pathways, access to patient data, reporting, and public health information for major interventions like maternal health and immunizations through app and web-based tools that are now affecting thousands of patients.

ogow health creates digital health solutions that empower and equip healthcare providers, caregivers, and governments in the most difficult-to-reach communities, with products that improve patient access to records, improve understanding and adherence to healthcare policies, and build patient trust in health systems through innovative and community-centric methods.

Its system is available in desktop and mobile formats and includes a caregiver interface for immunization schedule adherence, basic healthcare and disease prevention educational videos, and Q+A functionality, all in Somali.

“Prior to COVID-19, nearly 3.2 million Somalis lacked access to health care.” The need for universal health care systems has never been greater. COVID-19 demonstrates how the Somali health system is deeply unequal, and healthcare workers are woefully underprepared. “Gaps in the system disproportionately affect marginalized citizens while reversing decades of progress in health and well-being,” ogow health founder Khalid Hashi told Disrupt Africa.

Hashi, who is now based in Canada, realized the magnitude of the challenges during a visit home a few years ago.

“While assisting my maternal grandmother with surgery, I witnessed the severe limitations of Somalia’s healthcare system’s analog scheduling and patient intake systems, as well as paper record keeping.” Despite the fact that this is a well-known issue, I recognized that with some technological and entrepreneurial effort, as well as my inherent understanding of Somalia, its people, and culture, I might be able to innovate a solution,” he said.

“After some research, design, sprinting, redesign, prototyping, testing, coaching, mentorship, luck, and grants, I arrived at an initial tool that was simple to use and effective, which I first launched in World Vision clinics.” Since then, we’ve continued to iterate and expand our toolkits, receive additional financial support in the form of grants, and gain traction with our partners.”

The tools developed by the startup are now used in four clinics and have served over 15,000 patients. Originally funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ogow recently received a US$200,000 grant from the Canadian Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FITT), which Hashi said will be used to scale and develop new tools, including a powerful new dashboard for the Somali Ministry of Health to better monitor and report on intervention data.

“Our solution is to support rural and urban health facilities in Somalia by digitizing medical records, promoting public health interventions such as maternity health and infant mortality, increasing immunization uptake in women and children, and providing easy access to and timely care and patient information to providers and caregivers so they can make informed decisions,” he said.

“Our beneficiaries include adults, caregivers, children, and newborns, as well as frontline health workers, policymakers, and health care professionals working across the health system.” Importantly, our platform enables NGO leaders, administrators, and government officials to gain access to consolidated data on various health indicators for reporting and better informing decision-making and future planning.”

The startup is looking into raising an equity round of seed funding in the near future, but it has grown impressively without it. It distributes its mobile and web applications through B2NGO and B2B channels.

“We’re generating revenue and intend to use it, as well as other grants or fundraising, to fund product development and scaling,” Hashi explained.

“Our tools are intended for use by healthcare facilities and workers in difficult-to-reach frontier markets.” As we seek to expand, we will concentrate on these markets, as well as those in which our partners operate and require solutions similar to ours.”