Medcera: A Call For National Adoption

I was at the hospital recently and my eyes went stern when I saw the doctor writing in a typical ‘Nigerian’ doctor way; difficult to read, fast, and technical. As she was writing and questioning me, another part of my head was thinking about the number of doctors I have met at different hospitals since adulthood, which invariably mean how many hospitals that I have the fragments of my medical records. At that point, the question running in my head was “why aren’t we as a country adopting the innovative Medcera yet.”

Once in my medical history, I was given an antibiotic which my body reacted to. I was admitted in the hospital for 3 days to recover from the negative reaction. You know what, only one hospital in Nigeria has a record of me reacting to the particular drug. In effect, if I move to another hospital, I risk the danger of being given the same antibiotic except I know the drug myself and can recollect the name. Now I’m thinking within me, but Medcera is a free platform that aims to democratize health record per user across verticals.

Thinking back on my adulthood, I can say without thinking twice about four hospitals where I have my medical records, all driven by the different location where I have domiciled at one time or the other. My data, medical data, scattered around different databases. It means there is no way any new hospital that I visit today can access my medical history beyond what I can narrate. That is a great concern that needs a quick fix. Medcera was designed for this purpose.

I reckon that my story will be like that of an average Nigerian and if I’m to stretch it, an average African. If so, then I believe we should as a country and continent immediately declare a state of emergency on how we store our medical record.

The challenge here is that, just like any other endeavor, knowing history is poignant to shaping the future. Knowing your medical history will help your doctor to appropriately advise you on the state of your health even if it is her/his first time of meeting you. Imagine my case where I reacted to an antibiotic, if I can’t remember the antibiotic, another doctor might just recommend it to me again. You see, as Nigerians/Africans we run at risk of a lot medically. 

What is Medcera?

Medcera provides the possibility of maintaining one version of health record for a patient irrespective of the number of doctors, clinics, labs, imaging centers, etc involved. And this is unconstrained by location. Provided the patient and the providers are on Medcera, the patient’s medical record will be current as he/she moves across Africa, from clinic to clinic. The patient is completely in charge: he/she can revoke access to a provider at any time. And no one can see patient data unless he/she shares the Medcera Code.

Exactly the solution that addresses my needs and your need you exclaimed! Well yes, we have a solution already and that’s why I’m calling for its adoption nationally.

I want my medical record captured electronically, don’t you as well? Then make a call for it from your end as well.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe is the founder of Medcera, in one of his articles, he outlined a fine feature of Medcera and enumerated its vision:

“Walk into a clinic,” he said, “which is within Medcera network, give them your Medcera code, they will not need to ask you medical historical questions because Medcera has your medical summary which our AI pulls from your hospital encounters, lab data, imaging results and more.”

“What’s more; you can manage your prescriptions and practically anything including paying your doctor, pharmacies, etc. Our vision is to remove medical errors, save costs and bring higher quality in patients’ outcomes.”

I think you will agree with me already that Medcera should be adopted nationally and a state of emergency needs to be declared on how we store our medical records.