Vula Mobile
Model & Strategy
Many patients in Africa receive inadequate care because there is no way for front-line health workers to connect with specialist doctors. Vula addresses this through a technology platform that connects specialists, front-line workers, and patients in real-time.
Rural health workers use the Vula app to connect to specialists to get diagnosis and treatment advice, arrange urgent transfers, and make appointments. A simple and effective solution, Vula has been adopted rapidly across South Africa and has the potential to solve a critical bottleneck in the delivery of quality healthcare throughout Africa and globally.
Dr. Will Mapham’s passion is improving healthcare in rural and underserved areas. As a junior doctor volunteering in rural South Africa, he realized that he and the front line health workers had no access to specialist advice that could help them diagnose and treat their patients more effectively. Later he realized that many people who ended up at the hospital could have been managed at the local health center if only the health workers could have been connected to a specialist. So, in 2014 he founded Vula Mobile, a mobile app that connects local health workers to on-call specialists to improve patient care.
Dr. Mapham is an ophthalmologist who previously served as the Vice-Chair of the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA), spent time in the field of public health using media and mobile technology for behavior change, and has published academic articles on the role of innovation and technology in improving healthcare delivery.
Impact
As of August 2020, Vula had served 280,000 patients. August also marked the first month that Vula processed more than 1,000 patient referrals in a single day.
Average response time is 15 minutes.
Over 12,000 medical practitioners in South Africa are registered on Vula, which is now partnered with the South African national health system.
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Dr William Mapham was in Gaborone for a few days this week and had the opportunity to meet up with Mma Lehasa, the… https://t.co/EQ0nsJ4Vw9
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We are currently running at one patient helped per minute. With the support and partnerships from the #JNJ Center f… https://t.co/7cnCxzabg2
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RT @lauranelcpt: #JNJ works with @vulamobile to bring specialized healthcare to remote, underserved South African communities by connecting…
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Meet Karin Simpson, our new Advertising Sales Manager. Karin has been in the Medical industry for 35 Years.Last 3 y… https://t.co/Exj6Ae93zR
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Our Town Hall we invite a health professional,tell us about their day, how @vulamobile helps and can be improved. D… https://t.co/re4qeKLvSq
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The Medical Gastroenterology department at Tygerberg starting using Vula just over one month ago and have already m… https://t.co/f3OPLYz6xd
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Great morning yesterday with the @FINDdx team in Geneva. Meeting both the local team in person and the leads in Ken… https://t.co/ItlajaN0dQ
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RT @JNJNursing: For health systems to work, it takes NURSES. Johnson & Johnson stands with you as the scientists, healers, and ROCK STARS t…
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With COVID cases rising in SA we should all be careful.@vulamobile helps healthcare heroes at the COVID frontline,l… https://t.co/PzjdAoEHNr
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RT @StartupSavant: 9 Startups Fighting Poverty: https://t.co/0S3hTROvG6 #startup #entrepreneur #makingadifference @wefarm @VodafoneGroup…
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RT @mrleewp: Today I had the privilege of sharing my journey with some final year students at @StellenboschUni
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2018 @sanofi awarded their #African Health Tech prize. Started a process where we started to generate revenue in th… https://t.co/r8N2F3tTcz
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Thrilled to announce that Vula Mobile was selected as a global finalist in the @ExTechChallenge Tech Challenge for… https://t.co/Krd0zzbiTB