For having bagged the title of Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria sure does disappoint when it comes to health care service delivery. That is why many Nigerians seeking medical treatment prefer to travel to other countries; and it is a good number of Nigerians who do so.
Obviously, it is not cheap to travel abroad in search for medical treatment. That is why it is a reserve for the affluent Nigerians, but what about those who cannot afford? And won’t it be better if Nigerians going abroad could cut their medical expenses (at least on travel and accommodation) by getting quality health care service promptly right at their home country?
Well, this startup – Doctoora – has answers to all these questions. Doctoora is an online marketplace where healthcare professional offer their services to patients in need of medical attention.
In a nutshell, it is an e-commerce website where qualified medical practitioners enlist their services, and patience browse through the various catalogues of enlisted services in search of the medical care they want.
Doctoora was founded in 2016, by a team made up of Dr Debo Odunlana, Dr Beatrix Wi, Alecia Esson, and Shakirah Saliu. The team says Doctoora allows patients to easily search for the medical attention services they need. A move that will reduce the number of Nigerians travelling abroad for special medical treatment, simply because they did not that the specialists for their special condition is available in their home country.
The team believes technology and innovation will leapfrogg the medical constraints currently bedeviling the health care service delivery across many regions in the African continent.
“We view healthcare as a social good with great economic impact and recognize the importance of an holistic approach towards achieving and maintaining good health. To this end, it is imperative that we adopt new care models and care services so,” said Dr Debo.
Doctoora as an online platform, works by matching doctors, available medical facilities, services, and products to patients who are in need. It all plays out in the convenience of the internet. Meaning a person feeling sick can take out their smartphone or get on their computer and search for the medical services, facilities, products, and health care professionals they need.
The service will also increase the demand for healthcare professionals and will most likely reduce the number of brain drain through health workers migrating to other countries in seek of greener pastures. Especially when you consider the fact that for the professionals, the cost of setting up private practice is restrictively high.
Doctoora removes most of these hurdles. Take for instance, if a doctor wants to see a certain patient, he simply logs in to the Doctoora web portal, run a search on available clinical rooms, lab facilities, and rent them. The patient will then visit them at the rented clinical room and have his tests done at that rented lab facility. Not forgetting the patients will have to log into Doctoora as well, and shop for the best doctor subject to availability and budget.