Hudibia（伊博语，意思是“看病”）这款APP的与众不同之处还在于，它能够为患者提供全方位的医疗服务，也就是说，所有你去医院就诊时期望做的事情都能通过这个程序得以实现
文I伊肯内·埃梅乌 尼日利亚《太阳报》主编 翻译I 王晓波
尼日利亚可以说是世界上信息技术发展最快的市场，尤其对于一个只是消费而极少生产通信设备的国家来说，这一发展意义重大。
● 因地制宜的互联网医疗
● Hudibia成为典型APP
● 还待时间检验
因地制宜的互联网医疗
2015年年终时，尼日利亚通讯委员会（NCC）发布了一份白皮书，其中提到全国服务提供商平台上的互联网用户数是9737万人，也就是说，当时的互联网使用人数仅占总人口的55%。即便如此，它的互联网用户人数仍居世界第六位。从那以后，这个数字仍在继续增长，越来越多的人能够非常便捷地使用互联网，其对社会形成的大规模影响也在不断扩大，这一点在医疗服务方面表现得尤为突出。
通过患者的手掌，医疗保健服务正在尼日利亚发生着一场变革。移动应用程序借助手机和个人电脑能够非常便捷地为患者提供快速且直接的医疗服务。目前在尼日利亚有二十多个与医疗相关的应用程序和在线服务提供商。虽然发展趋势表明，互联网正在拉近医生与需要得到治疗的病人的距离，但根据统计数据显示，移动医疗市场仍远未达到饱和的状态。尼日利亚医学会（NMA）指出，在尼日利亚城市行医的医生占到医生总数的近50%，而在这42000名医生中，一半以上来自国外。按照患者人数统计，45%的患者居住在农村。由于大多数农村地处偏远区域，因此城乡间的巨大差距使得公共医疗服务的普及状况令人堪忧。
现在有了这样一个平台，iCliniq, 可以将在Diaspora（类似Facebook的一款社交网站，译者注）上注册的尼日利亚医生与居住在农村的患者联结起来，从而减少因距离产生的障碍。
Hudibia成为典型APP
在当地自己开发的应用程序中，Hudibia 是最成功的，这个名称是伊博语，意思就是“看病”。这个应用程序（以及它的网站hudibia.com）可以让用户自己在上面查找世界各地的医生和医院、问诊、预约并在网上付费。而且出于对本土化的考虑，程序开发人员很体贴地在这个平台上提供了除英语外另外三种当地使用较多的语言：伊博语、约鲁巴语和豪萨语。另一个非常值得一提的是，这个应用程序中包含了视频功能，这样患者可以与医生进行实时交流和语音咨询；而在支付时，还设计了替他人支付的功能。该应用程序的服务项目非常齐全，包括发送可靠的诊断结果和提供VIP服务。
Hudibia这个程序的与众不同之处还在于，它能够为患者提供全方位的医疗服务，也就是说，所有你去医院就诊时期望做的事情都能通过这个程序得以实现。如此专业化的设计与该程序的创始人NjokuAmadi-Obi医生精湛的专业水平密不可分，他既是一名执业医生，也是一位远程医疗的研究人员。他明确指出，Hudibia 不仅能让人们直接获得有关常规病症的信息，还能实际处理和诊断任何疾病，包括为初期预防措施提供即时建议和为有生命危险的疾病提供专家意见。Hudibia 可以适用于Android 和 Windows 装置，通过谷歌的Playstore即可下载。目前该程序的注册用户已达数千人，有200多位医生在为他们提供服务。
还待时间检验
在尼日利亚和非洲一些其它国家，苹果的应用程序“艾达健康”的使用也在呈上升趋势。一则有关“艾达健康”的新闻报道是这样介绍的，“它能让用户无需使用复杂的医疗术语，而只通过简单的提问，就能随时随地检查自己出现的症状。用户还可以在上面设置多个配置文件，掌控所有家庭成员的健康状况。通过这个整个家庭的健康信息数据库，医生或其他专业人员就能很容易地了解到患者以前的诊断、曾经和现在的用药、过敏物等内容。”苹果的这个程序已经在世界90个国家得到应用。
不过在非洲最受欢迎的应用程序排行榜单中，艾达健康还是没有进入前十位。《投资非洲》最近编制了一份最具贡献的医疗保健应用程序和以互联网为平台的健康机构名单，在移动医疗市场方面，现在已经在使用中的程序仍然保持着最大的市场份额，比如：Hello Doctor; mPedigree; Matibabu; Momconnect; Medafrica; mRamadan,Smart Health App; Sehatuk; 和 DrBridge。这些程序的使用功能有一定的局限性，但却能提供极其重要的医疗服务，比如开处方、检测假药和简单的诊断。从非洲的信息与通信技术发展方面看，《非洲信息技术新闻》将Pixie Technologies, Cittrex, Bluedel 和 Bemasapp列为了四个最杰出的项目。不过，非常有意思的是，在尼日利亚，数以百计的年轻的程序开发人员正在成为前面提到的那些已赫赫有名公司的强大的竞争对手。
尼日利亚Hudibia医疗APP的创始人NjokuAmadi-Obi医生
要进一步推动非洲这个最大的消费市场的技术变革，需要吸引像脸书创始人马克·扎克伯格这类投资人的兴趣，这样才能引发意想不到的效果，就如同现在在印度看到的现象。随着互联网的使用正变得越来越普遍，内容供应商们更应当注重在用户体验、网络效果和本土化方面的改进和提高。尼日利亚在医疗保健方面的发展也为国内相关技术的稳步提升创造了条件，因为毕竟与那些跨国巨头们相比，国内的公司对市场有更多的了解。当然也要考虑市场规则、资金等因素。最终只有时间会验证一切。
A Quiet Revolution: Mobile apps change Nigerian healthcare services
By Ikenna Emewu, Editor of The Sun Newspaper, Nigeria
● Suitablefor local environment
● Experienceof Hudibia
● Timewill tell
Nigeria is the fastest growing Infotechmarket, arguably in the world; for countries that mainly consume and rarelyproduce ICT equipment system, this new development has significantimplications.
Suitablefor local environment
In the latter end of 2015, the NigeriaCommunications Commission (NCC) released a white paper detailing that thenumber of Internet subscribers on service provider platforms in the countrywas97.37million. At that timeInternet penetration was only at about 55% of thepopulation. Nonetheless, Nigeria still managed to rank 6thlargest in terms ofvolume of Internet users in the world. Since then, these figures have onlygrown.As the efficiencies and connectivity of the Internet reach more and morepeople, the potential impact onlarge sectors of society correspondingly builds.This dynamic can be clearly seen in healthcare.
From the palms of patients’ hands,healthcare is undergoing a revolution within the Nigerian market.Mobile appsare now facilitating fast and seamless medical services via phones and personalcomputers.At present, there are over 20 healthcare related apps and onlineservice providers in Nigeria. While trends indicate that Internet is beingcapitalized to close the gap between doctors and those needing medical attention,statistics show that the mobile medicare market is still far from saturation.The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) notes that close to 50% of the nation’sdoctorspractice in urban areas but of the 42,000 Nigerian medical doctors, morethan half are abroad. As for patient demographics, 45% of the population livesin rural areas. Considering the remote nature of many of these rural areasthere is a stark rural-urban divide exacerbating health service accessibility.
Experienceof Hudibia
One such platform, iCliniq, is gearedspecifically towards linking Nigerian doctors in the Diaspora with ruraldwelling patients, focusing mainly on lowering the barrier of distance. But nolocally developed app has proved to be as prominent as Hudibia, meaning ‘seethe doctor’ in Igbo. The Hudibia app (and website platform –hudibia.com)allows users to search for doctors and hospitals anywhere in the world, haveconsultations, book appointments and pay medical fees online. Carefullyconsidering localization, app developers went a step further to make theplatform accessible in Nigeria’s three major languages: igbo, yoruba and hausa,in addition to english. Additional noteworthy features include, videocapability that enables real-time patient to doctor communication, voiceconsultation, and a payment service that allows users to pay health bills forrelatives. The app’s complete list of services boasts other conveniences likesecure results transmission and concierge services.
Hudibiadifferentiates itself by providingthe user with the full gamut of medical services that anyone would expect toreceive at a hospital or doctor visit. Such specialization has to do with thelevel of expertise the founder brings to the app. Dr. Njokuamadi-obi, thefounder of hudibia is also a practicing doctor and researcher in telemedicine.He clarified that hudibia also provides direct access to information on commonhealthcare problems. In this way, the app positions itself as the go-tomedicare platform for virtually any medical issue, supplying instant advice forprimary care issues and specialists to address more life threatening illnesses.Hudibia is currently accessible on the google playstore for android and windowsdevices. The app’s regular patient user base is in the thousands and over 200doctors are signed up and offering services.
Timewill tell
In Nigeria and a number of other Africancountries, Apple’s app called ‘Ada Health’ is also trending upwards. A newsreport describes Ada Health as an app that allows users to “check theirsymptoms anytime and anywhere by asking simple questions without complicatedmedical language. Users can also set up multiple profiles to manage the healthof family members as well. By providing a personal database for the healthinformation of entire families, previous assessments, current and pastmedications, allergies, etc. can be easily shared with a doctor or other healthprofessionals.” The app is in use in 90 countries worldwide.
But as for the most popular apps on thecontinent, Ada Health still has yet to make top 10. Ventures Africa recentlycompiled a list of themost prominent healthcare apps and Internet basedhealthorganizations. Incumbents in the mobile medimarket still retain thegreatest market share, such as: Hello Doctor; mPedigree; Matibabu; Momconnect;Medafrica; mRamadan, Smart Health App; Sehatuk; and DrBridge.These apps havemore limited functionality but provide critical medical services likeprescriptions, detection of fake drugs and simple diagnoses. As for African ICTdevelopment, IT News Africa listed Pixie Technologies, Cittrex, Bluedel andBemasapp as the four most prominent.But interestingly enough, in Nigeriahundreds of independent young developers are proving to be strong competitorsfor the major and more established companies previously mentioned.
As Infotech revolutionizes Africa’s largestconsumer market, spikes in investor interest like Mark Zuckerberg, founder ofFacebook, signal the promise of incredible impact similar to that seen inIndia. While the process of closing the accessibility gap has begun, providerswill increasingly compete on the basis of user experience, network effects, andlocalization. Nigeria’s healthcare evolution also points to a credible andgrowing domestic tech scene that seems to understandits market better than themultinational giants, but as in any market regulations, capital and of coursetime will tell.