When patients change hospitals, move to another city or seek a second medical opinion, accessing their medical history can become a challenge. Records may be scattered across different facilities, stored in paper files or held in digital systems that cannot easily communicate with one another. AfyaRekod is tackling this problem by building a digital health platform that allows patients to store, access and share their medical information across healthcare settings.
Founded in Kenya, AfyaRekod combines digital health records, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology to improve how patients and healthcare providers manage medical information. Its approach centres on a simple idea: patients should be able to access their health records and decide who can view them, rather than having their medical histories remain confined to individual hospitals.
A health record that moves with the patient
AfyaRekod’s central offering is its patient-driven health data platform, which enables individuals to record, store and retrieve medical information through a digital portal. The company also provides software for hospitals and healthcare professionals to manage patient information and coordinate aspects of care.
Its Universal Patient Portal allows users to maintain personal health records, including medical history and other health information. Patients can share selected records with healthcare practitioners by choosing the information to share and providing the intended recipient’s details.
Each registered user receives an AR Code, a unique identifier that AfyaRekod describes as a personal health identification number. The platform also supports account access through email and recovery phone numbers, providing alternative ways to retrieve an account if a user changes their phone number or device.
The goal is to make medical information more portable. Rather than depending entirely on a hospital to retrieve a previous record, patients can maintain a personal collection of health information and share it when seeking care elsewhere.
This could be particularly useful for people managing long-term conditions, families coordinating care for dependants and patients who regularly visit multiple healthcare providers.
However, the usefulness of a portable health record depends on whether healthcare facilities can contribute accurate information and whether practitioners can access and interpret it when needed. A digital record is most valuable when it fits into the clinical workflows used to deliver care.
Bringing blockchain into healthcare data
AfyaRekod identifies blockchain as part of the infrastructure supporting its platform. According to its website, patient information is stored on encrypted servers, while transactions are recorded on its blockchain.
This distinction is important. Blockchain does not necessarily mean that a patient’s medical records are stored directly on a public ledger. In AfyaRekod’s description, the health information resides on its servers, while blockchain records support aspects of the system’s transaction history.
A blockchain-based record can help establish a verifiable history of transactions, such as when information is recorded or shared, depending on how the system is implemented. This may improve accountability and make certain changes easier to audit.
The technology could also support a model in which patients have greater control over access to their information. Instead of treating medical records as information that belongs exclusively within a hospital’s systems, the platform is designed around patient access and authorised sharing.
But blockchain alone does not guarantee confidentiality or prevent unauthorised access. Those protections depend on encryption, identity verification, access controls, key management and the handling of information stored outside the blockchain.
AfyaRekod’s public materials describe its blockchain-based approach, but do not provide enough technical detail to independently establish the underlying blockchain network, the specific records written on-chain or whether independent security audits have been completed. Those details would help healthcare providers assess the platform’s security and interoperability.
AI and tools for healthcare providers
AfyaRekod’s offering extends beyond personal medical records. Its website lists several tools designed to help healthcare institutions manage patient information and improve access to medical services.
One is its dynamic electronic health record (EHR) system, which maintains patients’ medical and treatment histories and helps identify those due for preventive screening. The platform also includes disease-management tools for monitoring outbreaks and conditions such as malaria, HIV and Ebola.
Its diagnostic management tool is designed to help radiologists track imaging data over time and share access to medical images with patients. AfyaRekod also promotes AI-based analysis and reporting as part of its wider health data offering. These tools address different parts of the healthcare process. Digital records help organise patient information, disease-management systems support monitoring, and diagnostic tools help healthcare professionals access relevant imaging data.
AI could add another layer by helping analyse health information and identify patterns that warrant further investigation. However, the company’s public descriptions do not establish the clinical performance of particular AI models or demonstrate that their outputs improve patient outcomes. Such claims would require evidence from validation studies and real-world use.
AI-generated analysis should therefore complement clinical judgement rather than replace decisions made by qualified healthcare professionals.
Extending access beyond smartphones
The company lists a software-as-a-service platform for healthcare institutions, mobile applications for Android and iOS, a patient portal and a USSD channel. Its website says the USSD service is designed to let patients and health workers access AfyaRekod through feature phones. This matters in markets where not everyone owns a smartphone or has reliable mobile internet access. USSD services operate through mobile network menus and can work on basic phones without requiring users to install an application.
For healthcare systems serving rural communities and people with limited access to digital infrastructure, that option could reduce one barrier to participating in digital health services.
Still, USSD is not a substitute for every feature available through a smartphone or web portal. Access to detailed medical records, imaging files and other complex information may require additional channels. The actual services available through USSD will determine how much it expands access in practice.
The broader opportunity is to connect patients, healthcare workers and medical facilities through a shared digital health ecosystem without assuming that everyone has the same device or level of connectivity.
Building a wider healthcare ecosystem
AfyaRekod’s platform serves both individual patients and healthcare institutions. Its business model therefore extends beyond a consumer-facing health application to include software for managing medical records and other hospital operations.
In February 2022, the company announced a $2 million seed funding round led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from Next Chymia. The funding was intended to support product development and expansion into additional African markets.
At the time, partnerships involved the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya, Healthy Mind Foundation in Nigeria and Alchemy in Southern Africa. These relationships were intended to support healthcare access, training or hospital onboarding in their respective markets.
The funding and partnerships point to an ambition to build a broader healthcare data network rather than a standalone medical-record application. Such a network becomes more useful as additional healthcare providers participate and patients can retrieve relevant information across facilities.
However, funding and partnerships indicate investment and ecosystem development, not current adoption or improved health outcomes. Updated figures on active patients, connected facilities and successful record exchanges would help establish the platform’s present reach.
The privacy challenge behind patient-owned data
Giving patients greater control over their medical records also raises important questions about privacy, consent and data governance.
Health information is particularly sensitive. Patients need to know who can access their records, how permissions can be withdrawn and what happens to their information if they stop using the platform.
AfyaRekod says it uses encrypted servers and permission-based sharing. Its terms and conditions also state that users may grant the company a licence to use submitted data, to the extent permitted by law, to generate statistics, models or analyses and make those outputs available to third parties. That provision deserves careful attention. Patients should understand how their data may be used beyond direct healthcare services, including whether information is anonymised, what safeguards apply and how any applicable consent requirements are handled.
The company’s references to HIPAA, GDPR and other data-governance standards on its website should not, on their own, be interpreted as independent certification or proof of compliance in every jurisdiction where the platform operates.
For a patient-driven health platform, privacy is not a secondary feature. It is central to whether people can trust the system with information that may affect their treatment, insurance and personal lives.
Making health information more accessible
AfyaRekod is addressing a practical problem in healthcare: medical information is often difficult to retrieve and move between providers, even when that information could help clinicians make better-informed decisions.
Its combination of patient-controlled records, healthcare management tools, blockchain-based transaction records and multiple access channels offers one approach to improving that situation.
The technology’s value, however, will depend on how well it connects with healthcare providers, protects sensitive information and works in the conditions where patients need it most. Blockchain can support accountability, and AI can help analyse data, but neither guarantees better care on its own.