Vula - secure medical chat & referral

Solution Purpose: Vula connects remote primary health care workers directly to on-call medical specialists using mobile technology. It is a secure medical chat & referral app that puts primary health workers in direct contact with medical specialists. Vula provides features that aid health care workers in providing the best care to patients, particularly in rural settings. The app facilitates referrals across medical specialties including Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Burns & Orthopaedics. Essentially, Vula puts specialist knowledge into the primary health care worker's pocket, which leads to an increase in quality referrals, cost savings on patient transport, the empowerment of primary health care workers and ultimately improved patient care.

Health care workers will use the Vula app on their smartphones to assess, record and send patient information to specialists. This includes access to camera functionality, acuity tests, diagnostic information and specialty-specific patient forms. Specialists then receive the information and use Vula's chat function to advice the health care worker on the next steps to treatment (either on-site treatment and guidance, medical advice or instructions to send to the local hospital).

The Vula app first went live on the Google Playstore and Apple iStore in mid 2014. Vula began as a solely ophthalmological solution as its founder, Dr William Mapham, is an Ophthalmologist. It has since grown to include additional specialities (Burns, Cardiology and Paediatrics). Vula can be used on almost all smartphones but its use is restricted to medical professionals; registration requires a unique medical practitioner's number. Admins (those who pay for additional functionality) of the app are able to derive certain data about how their medical staff are using the app and its effectiveness. All patient information is securely saved on Vula's cloud based system.

Publicly available: Yes
Countries where available: South Africa, New Zealand, Swaziland (downloadable Worldwide).
Price range: Free
Offered or can be licensed for local manufacture: Yes

Dimensions: Smartphone Dependent
Weight: Smartphone Dependent

Documentation, article, or review
Media Advisory (pdf)