mHealth Case Study

Patients book, consult and get alerts from smartphones and basic feature phones alike, through app, web, USSD, IVR and SMS. Everything runs on one platform that also digitises hospital operations, from OPD to pharmacy and billing.

The Challenge

A Zimbabwean business conglomerate operated two major businesses: a telecom provider and a health
insurance company. They had a powerful strategic vision- use their telecom network reach to deliver
digital health services to their health insurance subscribers — but no technical platform to connect the
two.

The challenge was significant on multiple dimensions. Their subscriber base included users on basic
feature phones with no smartphone or data access. Hospital and clinic partners had no digital systems- operations were managed manually. Doctors needed tools, patients needed access, hospitals needed
management, and the business needed all of it in a single platform rather than separate disconnected
systems. The starting point was genuinely greenfield.

What We Built

Patient-Facing Services

Mobile app (iOS and Android) built in Flutter- appointment booking, consultation history, health tips, and medication reminders for smartphone users
Web portal for patients- browser-based access to the same services for users on desktop or laptop
IVR-based menu- patients can access appointment booking and health services via an interactive voice response system on any phone, including basic feature phones with no data capability
USSD-based access- subscribers on any basic handset can access services at zero data cost via the operator's USSD infrastructure
SMS notifications- appointment confirmations, test result alerts, and prescription reminders delivered via SMSC integration
Ambulance booking with live GPS tracking- one-tap emergency request with real-time ambulance location and ETA for patient and hospital pre-notification

Telemedicine — Audio and Video Consultation

In-app audio and video consultations via WebRTC- patients can choose audio-only for lower bandwidth conditions or full video for richer interaction
Accessible from the patient's mobile app, patient web portal, and the doctor's portal- same consultation session regardless of which interface either party uses
Session recording and digital prescription output- structured record created automatically at the end of each consultation

AI Consultation Summary — MedGemma

Hospital Operations

OPD and IPD management- patient flow, triage, ward rounds, and bed management across departments
Pharmacy, laboratory, and billing modules- integrated end-to-end across the hospital workflow
Web-based portals for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and administrators- role-specific interfaces giving each user exactly the tools their role requires
Multi-department and multi-location support- single platform for the full hospital network

Outcome

Technology Stack

No single off-the-shelf product covers telemedicine, telecom access, AI and hospital operations together. This platform brings six engineering areas into one system: mobile, web, real-time video, telecom, AI and hospital workflows. Each layer was chosen so that care reaches patients on any device and hospitals run on one platform.

Mobile

Web Portals

Video & Audio

IVR

AI

Telecom

Mapping

Backend

Database

Building a Digital Health Platform?

Whether you need telemedicine, hospital operations, or AI clinical tools — let’s talk about what the right architecture looks like for your market.