PATCORD

PATCORD is an electronic patient record management. It enables Patients, Doctors, Nurses and other health practitioners to management the medical record of a patient. PATCORD ensures that all health data of the patient is securely stored online and accessible on various technological devices such as computers, laptops, tablets and cellphones. PATCORD is developed by Batsamayi Software Development Pty Ltd. A company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. BATSAMAYI was founded in 2013 by students at Nelson Mandela University and currently has a team of 13 young IT professionals.

What skills and resources were you able to draw from the community for this project?

PATCORD has received assistance from professors at the Nelson Mandela University. In addition, there has been valuable input from Health Practitioners from various hospitals in Port Elizabeth, and Eastern Cape and Gauteng province. Members of South African communities have also been willing to contribute to the development of the application. The provincial health department has assisted in a providing a path to follow in order to get approval for piloting. The Propella Incubator in Port Elizabeth has assisted in the development of a business model that would help make this application a reality.

The challenges

PATCORD was developed with the aim to address the massive health challenges faced by South Africa. In alignment with the call by Nelson Mandela to "change the world". South Africa has a struggling health service and PATCORD addresses this challenge from the patient perspective by ensuring that all health records of a patient are securely stored online and always available to the relevant health practitioners. Achieving this, can reduce the cost of health care, improve patient continuity of care and improve the lives of those who are most vulnerable and dependant on these health services.

Addressing the challenges

PATCORD is in continuous development to ensure it is able to cater for the entire population once it is available to use nationally. PATCORD was birthed from iSEEYOU, a personal health record application that started in 2014. It was awarded best health project by the School of ICT at Nelson Mandela University. In 2016 the first project prototype was shown to health practitioners who contributed by sharing the requirements the application needs to meet to achieve its goal of national health coverage. Subsequently, the project has been tested with health practitioners and patients to improve its functionality. This has been an ongoing process and will continue until the application reaches its intended target. The feedback so far has been positive with requests to add more features such as a payment portal to enable doctors to handle both cash and medical payments through the application. The ability for doctors and nurses to work offline with their patient records. And most important, enable patients to have access to relevant data in their patient record on various platforms, including cellphones that use primarily USSD technology.

The achievements

PATCORD in its initial version was awarded the best health project by the School of ICT at Nelson Mandela University. In addition, the biggest achievement has been in the continuous development of the application to ensure that a real change can be made to the essential health service of South Africa.