Virtual Doctors - An app to help improve primary healthcare in remote and impoverished areas of sub-Saharan Africa

In Zambia there is 1 doctor for every 12,000 people, so 3 Sided Cube built a scalable, efficient solution to work reliably offline, and help improve local primary healthcare in some of the most remote and impoverished areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

Virtual Doctors relies heavily on technology to facilitate communication between clinical officers in remote locations and the Virtual Doctors volunteers. However, the existing app was outdated, buggy, and not built to scale. It struggled with offline functionality, which is crucial since clinical officers often work in areas with limited or no internet access.

The solution involved developing two key products: an admin portal and a mobile app for Android. The admin portal was designed for UK-based virtual doctors to manage cases and view dashboards. The mobile app was designed for clinical officers who work offline to log cases and sync information when online. This approach aimed to address the scalability issues and improve the offline functionality critical to the life-saving work of Virtual Doctors operations.

Every single day this app allows volunteer doctors to offer advice to diagnose conditions, and manage and treat patients. This assists and empowers local health workers, helps support the reduction in mortality rates & hospital referrals, and furthers the Clinical Officers’ medical education.